Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity
by Donderkind
Summary: Asuka and Shinji skip school on the very day that the 9th Angel attacks. The fallout from this action sets in motion a change of heart and direction for the two lonely Pilots. Enjoy... I hope! Rated M for language and lemony content. And a crap summary!
1. Transparency

This is my first fic, so please excuse any newbie errors or such! I've decided that I would publish it as a whole, complete fic, rather than chapter by chapter, mainly just to prove to myself I could do it.

Evangelion remains the property of Gainax and respective distributors.

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 1.**

**Transparency**

When I think of Asuka and those far off days my two most abiding memories are the smell of Strawberry Balsam Shampoo, and her standing silhouetted against the harsh blue sky. Her yellow sundress billowing, almost transparent as the thin material flapped around her body. That and the fiery corona created around her tousled Golden-Red Hair by the late morning sunlight framing her face. She cocked her head at me quizzically from the small cairn of stones that she stood astride like a colossus.

When people talk of the Second Child and the Angel Wars these days you'd think that she was more of a monster than the Fourteenth Angel. A one girl tsunami of chaos and destructive power. Terrible, violent and spiteful with almost no hope of redemption possible.

Of course, _they_ didn't have to live with her.

Not like I did.

I could have told them far more harrowing a story than their closeted pre-Impact minds could have even imagined. The screaming, the throwing of random pieces of cutlery, the casual violence and taunting. The constant accusations of lust and perversion. Oh no, they didn't know the half of it.

And yet there was far more to the story than that mere childish caricature. She was capable of; well I guess you could call it kindness, even if it was kindness with a barb to it. Living with Asuka Langley Soryu back then was like walking on a glass bridge over a pit of scorpions. You could never be sure when the whole thing would shatter and you would fall into the scorpions den, with the stinging and the hurting and the screaming and such and such.

Hmm… I suck at metaphors.

Despite all of this, I cherished those quieter, 'kinder' moments more than all the Pickled Soy-Curd in New Shanghai, as the old saying goes.

But I digress.

This particular day had started with lies and subterfuge. Nothing biblical mind you. I had been up for over an hour that morning before either of my fellow residents of the Katsuragi, um… residence, had even stirred. It's just the way things were there in those days. I often think that I was more like a mother to that household than anything else. Although the topic of Mothers is not one that should be broached casually, even in these more enlightened days.

Anyway, I was up first, as usual. Pen-Pen was fed and beered and had waddled back to his fridge as contented a Hot Springs Penguin as ever there was. As for me, well I was cooking breakfast. Turkey-Bacon and eggs for Asuka, a Chicken Okayu with Yebisu chaser for Misato and toast and marmalade for myself. Nothing out of the ordinary there then. Poor unsuspecting sap that I was.

The first actual suspicion that I had of things to come was a shadow across the light streaming in from the open balcony window. That and the sweet fragrance of Strawberry Balsam. I turned quickly around and was face to pretty face with one Asuka Langley Soryu, her nose no more than two or three inches from my own.

"Asuka?" I said shakily, my voice breaking mid syllable. I was a teenaged boy after all. Girls were alluring and terrifying. Asuka exponentially so.

"Hey, Shinji-kun." She purred. "Wanna see something cool?"

I was trapped, transfixed by those vivid blue irises and that intoxicating scent. Not to mention that the girl that I both feared _and_ longed after was within a few short inches of me. And calling me _Shinji-kun_! Blood rushed from my brain and to, well the less said about where it rushed to the better, all I knew for sure was that if she noticed, I was a dead man…er… boy. Once again may I state for the record that I was a teenager.

"Ummm, sure Asuka."

"Cool." She said, her morning breath wafting gently over me as she took the plate of turkey bacon and eggs that I held out for her, though she still stayed terrifyingly close to me. "Act like nothing is going on." She whispered, theatrically _sotto voce_. "When Misato finally emerges tell her that we're going to school as usual."

"Uh, okay." I said, feeling denser than Berkelium at this point. _We weren't going to school as usual? _I thought.

Finally she turned and took her breakfast off to the kitchen table.

You probably won't mind if I skip over the next hour or so. Needless to relate it involved lying to Misato, with Asuka alternately winking and glaring at me, and me alternating between blushing tumescence and abject terror. Not that there was anything particularly unusual about that for me in those days. This was followed by a lengthy henpecked hike up into the foothills to the North West of Old Hakone.

This brings me back to where we came into this. You know, Asuka standing proudly atop a convenient cairn. Me staring up at her admiring the way the sunlight shone through her hair and trying very hard not to give away the fact that I could see through her dress.

"Come on, Dunderhead!" She sniped at me. "Stop your lagging behind. We're nearly there!"

"You know, I could probably walk a lot faster if you carried your own pack Asuka!"

"Humph! Maybe they're right when they say that chivalry is dead in post 2nd Impact Japan! What bold and courtly knight of old would even consider letting his lady bear such a burden whilst he had even an ounce of strength?"

"Whatever." I muttered. I knew I couldn't win. I comforted myself with the image of Asuka in days of yore, locked in a tower guarded by a fearsome dragon. I smiled dreamily to myself. A _Red_ Dragon with fearsome teeth and bright blue eyes and two red neural connector-horns on its head. Of course, if Asuka was the Dragon, that would make the Damsel in Distress trapped up in the Tower… Me. Hmmm… I shook my head. I had enough issues of my own without going down _that_ rocky path.

"I knew that you'd see it my way." She beamed. "Now stop trying to see through my dress and let's get moving!"

"I…. I wasn't t-trying to… "I stuttered, blushing guiltily.

She stepped down from the cairn and started walking along next to me as we made our careful way through the debris field that this area had become after the destruction of the Seventh Angel several months ago.

"Don't act all innocent with me Third Child!" She said. "I know that you spend all of your day lusting after my perky young body!"

"A-Asuka I…" I attempted to deny it, even though it _was_ reasonably true in those days.

"Don't even try to deny it, Hentai!" She said imperiously. "I've seen you leering at me at school! Not to mention the unspeakable things you probably with my panties on wash day!"

"I-I…"

"And what do you do, spending so much time in the bathroom every night anyway?"

"W-what do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"You know very well, Third! You think that I don't notice when you go off to the bathroom for your '_Special Shinji Alone Time'_? It gets downright _awkward_ for Misato and me trying to make polite small talk with the sounds of heavy breathing and rhythmic pounding echoing right throughout the apartment!"

"That's really unfair!" I could feel the heat in my face growing.

"Oh Shinji! Just admit that you're a compulsive Onanist and let's end this hollow charade!"

_Onanist? _I thought. _But my old Teacher didn't really hold with organised religion._

Asuka could see my puzzled expression. What followed was a graphically mimed explanation that still haunts my nightmares to this very day.

"Oh." Was all that I said.

"Yep, that's what we usually hear right before you finish!"

"ASUKA!" Beetroot had nothing on me at that moment.

"Hahahahahaha!" She laughed uproariously at my discomfiture. "You are _too_ easy to wind up Third! Ah ha ha…" She wiped a tear from her eye and leaned a hand on my shoulder as we walked through the rubble. "Promise me you'll never change, Shinji!"

There. There it was. Let's just take a brief pause in the narrative to take in this scene to its fullest.

**Asuka**: Smiling happily. Her left hand casually draped over my shoulder. Her hand was so light and soft, but its merest touch sent an electric wave through my whole body.

**Me**: I was as close as I ever was to dissolving into pure LCL at that moment.

Mmmmmm….. Foreshadowing…

It may sound pathetic to you but there it was. The rare moment of interpersonal tenderness that froze time and made my adolescent heart skip a proverbial beat. Here we were together, she was happy in my company. I was scared/happy and strangely emboldened by the heady thrill of sharing company with this beautiful, exotic and terrifying creature who was actually _touching_ me. Voluntarily.

"Well… "I said before my internal censor could wrestle my newfound confidence to the floor and kneel on its windpipe. "A boy has to have a hobby…"

Instantly my heart quailed in terror, _Too Much? _As Asuka's hand lifted from my shoulder momentarily. I silently cursed at my self-sabotaging ability once again rearing its head. I screwed up my eyes and bowed my head. _Idiot! _I thought to myself._ Stupid stupid stupid!_

_Thwack! _Asuka's hand regained contact with me by way of a smack to the back of the head. That wasn't surprising. What did take me by surprise was the lack of force behind the blow.

"Hentai.." She said softly, a slight but unmistakeable blush on her cheeks as she turned her face away.

We trudged on in silence for a few minutes longer. My confused mind casting desperately around for a way to ease the awkwardness that I felt had overtaken our trek.

"Asuka, I… "I tried to begin.

"Quiet!" The redheaded girl said impatiently. "I think we're nearly there!"

"There?"

"Shh!"

We finally came to a stop at the lip of an enormous crater in the side of the hill.

"Well, Third. Here we are! What do you think?"

I knew this place. "Ummm… "

"Exactly! The scene of my greatest triumph!"

"The Seventh Angel?" I said in confusion. "But we _both_ defeated that Angel with a perfectly synchronised attack!"

"Puh-lease!" She said disparagingly. "All of that _'Jazz Hands'_ dancey crap? If you'll remember correctly _I_ was the one that executed that attack perfectly. While all you managed to do was fall on your ass and make us both look stupid!"

"I…" _I give up… _I gave up.

I decided on a different tack. "So, we skipped school today, marched _miles_ out of town, to look at a big hole in the ground?"

This seemed to have been the wrong thing to say.

"So, _Third Child_. I go to the trouble of getting us out of the most boring school in the Developed World. I get your pasty ass out into the Great Outdoors before the Rickets finally takes you. And, not to mention, give you some money can't buy one on one time with the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, and all you do is whine at me about the scenery?"

"I… uh… Asuka… I'm sorr…"

"Don't, Third. Just don't even go there!"

My mouth worked up and down for a few moments before finally giving up. "So why are we here, Asuka?"

She grinned at me. "I told you, Shinji. It's a surprise! Now come on! Let's find us a way down there!"

All questions of why and how evaporated from my tiny mind. Asuka called me Shinji! Again! The tiny and I'll admit rather pathetic thrill that sent down what passed for my spine in those days was enough that I would follow Asuka into the gates of Hell without question.

Some things, it seems, never change.

**End Chapter One**

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!


	2. Inversion

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 2**

**Inversion**

Bah! Why I put up with _some_ people never ceases to puzzle me. _You_ know who I mean, _Third_!

So, I've found Shinji's little essay about _that_ day in Old New Tokyo-3, and frankly, I think a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters may not necessarily have done better, but probably would have managed to hold my interest for slightly longer.

Here he is talking about a day upon which I took my own personal time to liven up his humdrum little life, and all he does is whine about it and make several, not so subtle, references to his nether regions.

Hentai.

Actually, I _was _a good person back then. Better than he deserved, some might say. I put up with his insignificant existence didn't I? Not to mention Misato's crapulous behaviour. _And,_ on the day in question I was actually doing him a favour and being nice to him. It was kind of like a Community Service.

Ingrate.

Meh.

Anyway, why don't _I _carry on this story for the time being?

So actually, I will admit, I really didn't have anything 'cool' to show Shinji that day. I was just _BORED_ out of my brain at that stupid school. I had a College degree for fuck's sake! Sure it was a Liberal Arts degree from Schweinfurt Polytechnic, but still, it was more than any of my fellow drones in that classroom had. Including that fossilised old Sensei.

I needed to get out of that God-awful stifling city, and checking out the site of one of my early victories seemed as good an idea as any at that time. Hiking had been something that I had always enjoyed in Germany. _So,_ I thought, _why the Hell not?_ It might tell you a little about how boring a company town like Tokyo-3 could actually get that a hole in the ground seemed like a viable option for a day's outing.

And also, the truth be told, Shinji was actually quite pleasant company in those days. Apart from his endless whining and apologising. Not to mention the lust and perversion that is endemic to all males that age. All of that aside, Shinji was actually ok.

It didn't do to let him know that though.

But enough of that…

Finding a way further down into the crater proved almost impossible, so eventually I spotted a likely place to stop on the crater's edge across on the other side. Leading the way, with Shinji still whining about carrying both of the packs, we began our trek around it.

"Asuka, why are we doing this?" Shinji asked me, gingerly stepping amongst the scree and rubble.

"I told you, to see something cool!"

"You said that, but… "

"Don't you dare spoil this with your nit-pickery Third Child! Anyway, we're almost there!"

Shinji, displaying rare common sense, kept quiet.

We finally arrived at the spot on the edge of the crater. The blasted remains of an old tree providing a semblance of shade. The crater sloped down and away from us like the caldera of an enormous volcano. The rocky surface of the sloping sides gave way to what looked like a smooth perfect circle in its centre. The rock there had almost a glassy look to it, possibly, I guess, from the heat of the Angel's exploding core.

We halted. I held my hand out for my back pack, which Shinji handed over. Unzipping it and reaching into it I pulled out a large tartan, rubber backed, picnic rug, and spread it on the ground. I motioned for him to sit. He sat. All the while looking up at me with those big puppy dog eyes of his. I smiled at him. He cringed like a frightened bunny for a moment before smiling back. Weirdly I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my chest like a jackhammer with ADHD.

_Come on, keep it together Soryu!_

I sat across from him on the rug, still smiling. Reaching into the bag I produced a large thermos filled with hot water. Followed by two polystyrene containers of a generic brand cup noodle I had stolen from Misato's personal stash. I peeled the lids partly off, poured the hot water into the containers and handed one to him.

"Ta da!"

"Huh?" Shinji said, appearing to be genuinely confused.

"Well, is this cool, or is this not cool?" I asked, not wishing to show the anxiety I was feeling about how he would answer.

"Am I missing something?" He said looking a little anxious himself. "You said you going to show me something cool. Um… I-I don't see…"

Oh, the poor clueless fool. I guess I had to spell it out for him.

"Shinji." I said, putting my serious voice on for the moment. "Think about this for just a second would you? Instead of being trapped in that mind destroying dump of a Middle School you're out here with a beautiful and popular girl. A girl that has not only seen fit to invite your sorry butt out for the day, but who has also provided all of the trappings of a lavish picnic for you! Tell me, is that, or is that not the _coolest_ thing that you have ever seen?" I leaned forward, giving him a perfect and unmissable opportunity to look down the front of my yellow sundress. "Hmm, _Shinji-kun_?"

Noting with some degree of satisfaction that Shinji's eyes wandered downward before snapping back to my mine I continued to stare intently at him. '_Come on'_ I thought, _'say something!'_

"Um… Sorry Asuka."

_Say anything but that._

I '_Hmphed_' and sat back on the rug. He really was hopeless. I will admit to more than a little annoyance that all I had achieved for my days efforts so far was to make Shinji sorry and myself cranky. What a waste!

We sat in silence for several minutes, the only sound was Shinji slurping at his cup noodles and the wind whistling over the side of the crater, creating small eddies in the dust and causing the remaining boughs of the old tree behind us to creak and sway. Across the crater we could see down the hillside and in the haze the gleaming buildings of Tokyo-3 shone like a crystal palace in the distance.

Shinji lowered his chopsticks and looked at me with a nervous smile.

"You know, Asuka, this _is_ actually kinda cool!"

I really wanted to toy with him just a little more, but I couldn't stop the grin that I could feel spreading across my face. Genuine warmth spread from my chest and throughout my whole being

"Told ya, Third! Stick with me, my boy, and you can never go wrong!"

The Third Child's eyes softened and he returned to slurping on his instant cup noodles. I watched him covertly from behind my own polystyrene container. You know, looking at him like that, relaxed, in one of those rare moments when the uncertainty and fear no longer marred his face, he really did have some potential as a bit of a bishonen. Sure, a kinda scrawny and needlessly apologetic one with boring hair, but a bishonen none the less. At those times he radiated a sort of inner calm that I always found comforting. Maybe it was Alpha Waves or Pheromones or some such mumbo-jumbo. Who cares? I would never have admitted it, but those moments, moments like this one, were oddly precious to me in the psycho-existential cluster-fuck that was life in Tokyo-3 in those days.

_Oh crap,_ I realised, _He's looking back at me! _There was no way on Earth I could allow him to think that I, the mighty Asuka Langley Soryu, was gazing dreamily at his scrawny body, with those unexpectedly broad shoulders tapering down to what would be, what with all of the training we did, a toned abdomen and rippling… FOCUS ASUKA! Brain returning to default settings I haughtily 'Hmphed' and stuck my nose in the air and quickly shovelled a large helping of cup noodles out of my container and into my mouth.

Big Mistake.

_BLEARGH! _Gott im Himmel! What the Hell was this crap? Almost immediately I unceremoniously launched the offending noodles and accompanying slurry out of my mouth and back into its cup. Self-preservation winning out over years of etiquette training and natural good grace. I looked at the foam cup, _"BEST-EVER BARBEQUE CURRY PORK FLAVOUR!" _Proclaimed the overly exuberant Katakana on the side. With an anthropomorphic family of piggies gazing out ravenously at me while clutching forks and knives.

Barbeque Curry Pork? It tasted like soot, and poo.

"Asuka? Are you okay?" Shinji asked with what I could tell was genuine concern.

"Of course I'm okay!" I replied blustering, trying to cover up my embarrassment. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"No reason. It's just that you've got a noodle hanging off your chin."

I wiped at my chin. I tried to be embarrassed, I tried to be angry. _No dice_. The ridiculousness of the situation started to get the better of me. It started as a snort, grew into a titter, a chortle, a chuckle even. Before I could help myself I was laughing, guffawing even, as if what had happened was the funniest thing since flatus met elevators.

Shinji initially just smiled at me as I found myself unable to stop laughing. That was until I threw the offending noodle at him of course! It landed deftly on his nose, hanging there until he tried to bat it away, tenaciously it stuck to his fingers as he shook his hand desperately, but vainly, trying to rid himself of it. Soon he was laughing completely unselfconsciously, in fact we both were.

Eventually, after several minutes, we calmed down, but I had to admit that at that moment I was definitely feeling what could only be described as a sense of warmth and happiness that was rare in my life at that time. I watched as Shinji finally gave up on the noodle still stuck to his fingers and sucked it off and into his mouth. He grimaced slightly at the flavour.

A comfortable silence settled over us as we sat there. His dark blue eyes met mine. He quickly looked away before looking back at me and holding my gaze. The silence grew more profound and decidedly less comfortable. Even the wind had died down. I could feel a trickle of sweat run down into the small of my back as I leaned forward, my left hand within a mere couple of centimetres of his right.

"Shinji, " I began finally, my mouth suddenly bone dry. "Do-do you think that… "

A distant rumble interrupted me in mid question. It certainly couldn't have been thunder. The day was sunny and quite hot, with not a cloud to be seen. Also, this was more insistent and continuous than thunder was wont to be.

And it was coming from the direction of Tokyo-3.

I looked around, unable to see the source of the noise until Shinji's arm pointed straight out in front of me. The JSSDF gun emplacements that surrounded Tokyo-3 were opening up for all they were worth at something that was out of sight to us behind the foothills to the west of the city.

"Do you think it could be an Angel?" Shinji asked.

"I doubt it." I replied uncertainly. "If an Angel got this close to Tokyo-3 our cell phones would have gone off. Anyway, they always retract the main buildings at the slightest hint of an Angel, and they're still standing, it can't be!"

In unison we both whipped out our NERV issued cell phones.

"Ach! No signal!"

"Me neither!" Said Shinji.

"Shit!" I said. "We'd better get down to the Geofront and find out what's going on before they sic Section 2 onto us!"

Shinji went to gather up our picnic, but I stopped him.

"Leave it there, baka!" I said more harshly than I meant to. "It'll just slow us down. It's all Misato's stuff anyway!"

Shinji frowned. "I'll come back for it afterwards." He said.

"Fine, whatever. Let's go already!" The JSSDF artillery was growing louder and more insistent by now.

With Shinji trailing behind me we set off as quickly as we could through the rock and debris, making our way back down into Tokyo-3 and what would become one of the worst days of my life.

**END CHAPTER TWO**

A/N: From here on the format will be alternating POVs from Shinji and Asuka. My take on it is that in their early episodes together, even though Asuka was still ultra competitive, she seemed to be quite drawn to Shinji and even seemed to quite like him in her own way. It was mainly later, as things turned ugly, that her own self-hatred caused her to lash out in a more openly abusive fashion. I'm very much more focussed on the early Asuka and that is the basis for my interpretation of her character.

That's my take on it anyway. As Always I ask for: 1) forgiveness for changing canon to suit my story, and 2) reviews, because I crave the attention!

Toodles... Donderkind.


	3. Mea Culpa

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 3**

**Mea Culpa**

To say that my Father was a little angry that day was kind of like saying that the replica pirate ships that ferry the tourists around Lake Ashi were a little tacky.

My Father was a _lot_ angry.

Asuka, Misato and I stood in his huge sepulchral office, with its cavernous interior and The Desk. The massive desk that strangely dominated the enormous office. Father and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, as always, were in dark silhouette, backlit by the panoramic windows showing the Geofront sprawling out in all directions. It was all designed, of course, to awe the supplicant and lend an air of menace and mystery to the man who sat behind that desk.

It wasn't really to my taste I must say. Some nice curtains, a couch or two and some uplights to lighten the ambience wouldn't have gone astray, in my opinion. Maybe a couple of throw cushions even.

As Asuka often likes to point out, my opinions are seldom relevant to what's actually going on. When she wants my opinion, she always says, she'll give it to me.

I could feel myself swaying slightly in time with the air-conditioning. Damn it was cold in there! Why was it always so freaking cold? I guess that Father liked to see people shivering when face to face with The Commander of one of the most powerful organisations on Earth. Geez, and people wonder why I have _issues_!

I reached up an attempted to adjust the bandage around my forehead, not a chance, it was far too tightly bound.

Sub Commander Fuyutsuki was currently berating Misato about dereliction of her duty as Operations Director and as guardian of two of NERV's piloting personnel. She stood ramrod straight between Asuka and me. Several beads of sweat running down her brow despite the coolness of the office. Father just sat there silently, hands tented in front of him. Let me just state for the record that I _despised_ that pose.

Asuka too, wouldn't look at me. Her gaze was fixed to the bare floor of the office. Her face white against her red hair. A dark streak of dirt and what could have been dried blood stood out against her pale skin.

Yep, I was definitely starting to sway quite a lot. My head ached terribly and I was beginning to feel pretty woozy. Hopefully this chewing out wouldn't take too much longer, I really needed to lie down rather urgently.

In my state of distraction it took me several moments to notice how quiet it had become. _Uh-oh_, I thought, _why is everyone looking at me now?_

"Huh?" It barely qualifies as a word, but it was the best I could do at such short notice and under the circumstances. I did notice Asuka roll her eyes at me.

"Third Child." My Father said.

"Yes sir?" I finally managed to croak in answer.

"What do you have to say to excuse yourself and Pilot Soryu's actions this day?"

Hmm… Not a bad question. Let me think about it for a moment…

* * *

><p>It had all started off not too badly, I guess. Asuka and I had gone off on an unscheduled day trip out to look at a dirty great hole in the ground. She was actually being nice to me for a change. Well, nice for Asuka that is. I had even managed to surreptitiously, (And completely by accident I swear) see right down the front of her sundress. I was definitely going to file <em>that<em> image away for future… ahem... reference… _And_ I had managed to eat _and_ keep down what may have been the worst Cup Noodle I have ever had in my entire life.

And then the faecal matter well and truly hit the ventilator.

After the JSSDF artillery had begun its well-meaning but essentially useless barrage of what would soon be designated the Ninth Angel. Asuka and I had begun a mad scramble back to Tokyo-3 and the Geofront.

Things had gone pretty well to begin with. Asuka and I made good time into the outer suburbs of Tokyo-3. We both were quite fit from months of training, much more so than your average teenagers would be I guess. The JSSDF artillery was falling much closer now though, almost deafeningly loud as the shells exploded frighteningly near to where we were running. Both of us trying to get to Emergency Access Route K-17 down to the Geofront.

I saw that Asuka, who was about 10 metres ahead of me, had stopped suddenly and was staring open mouthed to the west of the City centre. I slowed down to stand next to her and see what she was staring at.

Now I'm not arachnophobic. I'm a catch and release kinda guy. Maybe I'll give the odd creepy crawley to Pen-Pen as a supplement to his diet, but I've got nothing personal against spiders. The Ninth Angel, though, it gave me the screaming Hebegebees, I won't lie. It was in the form of a massive, nay, a _Gargantuan_ Spider. Probably at least 80 metres across its body, and with its freakishly long legs, I couldn't even begin to guess the total width.

And the eyes! Holy Crap _The Eyes_! All over its jet black body were these shimmering, almost translucent eyes. I still see those things in my nightmares I swear! Each one seemed alive and malevolent. To look into those eyes was to feel the weight and certainty of the righteous slaughter that those ocular prisms promised.

Now I always feel that it was the fact that I had actually seen an Angel from ground level once before that helped me come to my senses a few moments before Asuka did.

"Come on Asuka! Let's get outta here!" I yelled in her ear as I grabbed her hand and pulled her down the street with me. Just in time too. The intersection that we had been standing at was pretty much obliterated by shellfire 15 seconds or so after we left it. Chunks of flying masonry landed around us as we ran on, still holding hands.

The Angel continued on through the smashed intersection completely unharmed as the artillery bombardment continued on around it.

The fact that its final destination and ours were essentially the same did rattle around somewhere in the back of my mind, but blind panic was filtering all thought beyond '_RUN!' _from my mind quite efficiently at that moment.

"Shinji!" Asuka yelled at me, coughing in the dust from the explosions. "It's gaining on us!"

My mind was still very much in the flight part of the fight or flight response. I was still focussed on getting to K-17 that I was taken completely by surprise as Asuka yanked roughly on my hand and sent both myself and her sprawling into an alleyway by the side of the main road we had been running down.

Jumping back to my feet I was just in time to see one of the shiny and massive black legs of the Angel smash down on the concrete where we had just been running. Huge cracks opened up, crazing out from the point of impact.

Still the JSSDF artillery pounded on around us, which I just couldn't understand. Surely they should have handed over to NERV by now? All of this destruction of property was pointless, conventional weaponry was useless against the Angels after all.

A shell exploded just outside the alleyway, causing Asuka and I to dive behind a dumpster as shrapnel whizzed past and banged into the metal and brick around us.

"Those idiots!" Asuka yelled at me over the noise of the barrage. "They'll never damage the Angel like this! All they'll do is get us killed!"

I nodded in agreement.

"Let's get out of here!" She said, tightening her grip on my hand as she pulled me out from behind the dumpster and back up the alley.

I was about to voice some concern about the danger not being past yet when what could only be described as an ear-splitting _crack _rent the air around us and the World went suddenly and unexpectedly black.

I slowly emerged from the darkness to the sound of coughing. My back hurt like you wouldn't believe and my head felt like it was caught in a vise. The pressure on my chest, though not hard and jagged like at my back, was still making it difficult to draw breath.

Where was I? I wracked my brain, nothing. Still nothing. Hang on a moment. A couple of random images flashed before me. I searched further. There it was, I discovered in my mind an inflammation swollen and deformed, my memory.

Oooohhhh… Shit. That's right… The Angel!

I sat up and immediately my head collided with something hard, the impact was enough to have little stars of pain dancing around in front of my still closed eyes.

"Owwwwww! You idiot!"

"Uh… sorry Asuka." I said opening my eyes, which probably would have been the smart thing to do _before_ I had tried to sit up.

My left eye was a little fuzzy and didn't seem to want to open all the way, but the right one was working perfectly. What it showed me was a terrifying close up of a fierce sapphire blue iris a mere inch or so away from it. Asuka was right on top of me, her right hand to her head at the point of impact. Her eyes were watering in the brick dust and debris.

So that meant that the weight on my chest that was softer and more yielding than the rest of the debris surrounding me was…. _Oh God_.

"If you move, or try anything weird, _Third Child_, I will personally remodel your face so that you'll be able to clean your teeth by sticking your toothbrush up your nose!"

It was best to take Asuka at her word at these times. Although it was difficult to focus with her chest pushed up hard against my own by all the debris. But I had to control any reactions I may have otherwise had in such a situation, or she might just kill me. '_Okay, I can do this…_ _Just try not to think of her soft round fleshy…_ _Dammit! I said try not to think about it! Just think about the rubble that we seem to be trapped beneath. That's the ticket! Good old painfully crushing unsexy rubble.'_

"Uh… okay Asuka. Where are we anyway?" I said between shallow breaths.

"Gee, let me take an educated guess and say we're under a pile of masonry somewhere just near the End of Life as We Know It!" Sarcasm was one of Asuka's real strengths.

I could see that she was right, at least about the rubble that was.

"So, Invincible Shinji. What's the master plan for getting us out of here?"

I looked around me, my nose brushing hers briefly as I did.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Just deal with it Asuka. I'm trying to figure out what's around us!"

I could see that we had actually been quite lucky. The lid of the dumpster had covered our bodies quite effectively. Although I think that it probably had struck me on the head as it landed as I could see some blood on the corner nearest my now painfully throbbing left eye. Asuka herself was kind of diagonally across my upper body, mainly her torso and upper body on mine and her legs slightly off to the side.

"Wait a minute…" I said. "I think that I can move my legs!"

Sure enough, with some effort I was able to free them from the rubble and bend them up into a braced position.

"Well?" Asuka said with unmasked concern.

"Okay…" I replied. "I'm going to try something."

I lifted my arms up and out on either side of her.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, Shinji?" She said in alarm at my actions. I could tell she really was anxious because she actually called me by my first name.

I didn't reply. Gritting my teeth and tensing my muscles painfully against the rocks at my back I pushed with all of my strength at the dumpster lid above us. Nothing… still nothing… it felt like the rubble under me was about to crack my ribs like dry twigs. I'm sure that I felt blood start to flow back there, and also I could feel it trickle anew from the cut above my left eye.

"Shinji…" Asuka said with genuine concern. I kept pushing.

Finally I felt something shift up there and I was able to straighten my arms further.

"Asuka!" I said gasping between clenched teeth. "Can you move?"

She didn't answer, but she started to wriggle slowly from side to side. The weight was becoming unbearable. I could feel my arms shaking uncontrollable under the strain of it.

"Yes!" She finally answered.

She continued wriggling and I could feel her moving slowly, painfully slowly, down my body. Grunting and gasping as she went. Time moved so very slowly at that moment, I'm not sure how I managed to hold it up while she got out, but eventually, after what felt like an age, I could no longer feel her body moving against my own.

"Asuka?"

There was no answer but the clinking and grunting of her moving through the rubble. Then even that ceased. Terror gripped me for the first time that day. Had she left me? Was she okay? What was happening out there? The uncertainty was almost crippling.

"Asuka!" I croaked out. The strain was just about unbearable. My arms were two burning rods of pain.

Then there was a bang that I felt vibrate against the steel of the dumpster lid as something moved against it. And then another. Slowly but surely the lid above me began to get lighter and lighter. I could suddenly straighten my arms above my and lock my elbows to help ease the agony in my triceps. Then it was gone. The lid was lifted off and crashed deafeningly beside me as dusty light filtered down onto me.

Above me stood Asuka Langley Soryu, the _Great_ Asuka Langley Soryu. Dusty and with her yellow sundress hanging off her all torn and filthy, she was, at that moment, perhaps the most beautiful sight I think I have even seen.

She grinned at me hugely from her vantage point.

"Well, don't just lie there all day with your hands in the air Third Child! Get your lazy butt up and moving, we've got an Angel to kill!"

She held her hand down to me and I reached up and clasped her wrist and she mine as she hauled me quickly to my feet.

"Geez, you look like crap, Third!" She said with a grin as I dusted myself off.

"Thank you, Asuka." Was all that I managed in way of witty riposte. Not that she looked much better from what I could make out with my good eye.

At least all was now quiet as we picked our way through the rubble and shattered masonry and headed for the entrance to our alley.

"Thank God that shelling has finally stopped." Asuka said, mirroring my own thoughts. "Those JSSDF knuckleheads took long enough to hand over to NERV! Now let's get down there and kill this Angel already!"

As we rounded the corner and back out onto the main road we both came to a complete stop at the scene before us.

About one kilometre away, just past the entrance to Access Point K-17 that we sought actually, the massive form of the Angel could clearly be seen. It was kind of hunkered down with it's somewhat ovaloid body sitting much lower than it had been the last time we had seen it.

It was, quite obviously, dead.

The most telling clue to this wasn't the massive progressive Bowie Knife sticking out of the top of its body, nor was it the congealing trail of what must be Angelic blood slowly dripping from said knife-wound. What really gave it away was Unit-00 slumped in its 'Deactivated' position next to the carcass of the Angel. Two enormous battery packs still attached to its back.

"We must have been out for longer than we thought." I said. The girl beside me was strangely silent.

"Asuka?"

"NO!" Asuka actually screamed.

"Asuka… "

"Just Shut-up Shinji!" She screamed at me.

"But… "

"I… I cannot believe this! That bitch, that fucking _Doll,_ fights that Angel, in a solo battle, without external power or backup _and_ singlehandedly defeats it while I'm lying useless in a pile of rubble with _you!_"

"But, that's good isn't it?" I'm nothing if not completely clueless. "Defeating the Angels isn't a contest Asuka. Shouldn't we be happy that… "

I was stopped mid-sentence by the angry German girl grabbing me by the front of my shirt and roughly pushing me up against the wall. Given my recently gained injuries from our burial in the alley I gasped in pain at the impact.

"You listen to me, _Third Child_! Nobody, but nobody, shows me up as a pilot in front of the whole World. Not you and certainly not that emotionless animated marionette Ayanami!" She spat out the name.

She stayed there, breathing heavily inches away from my face for several moments. I quailed, feeling as if she might just strike me at any moment.

However… I was spared. Kind of.

"Freeze!" Came a harsh, commanding, voice from behind Asuka. She let go of me and spun around to face its owner.

Three Section 2 Operatives stood before us, guns in hand.

"Pilots Ikari and Soryu?" Their leader said. We both nodded. He then put his hand up to his earpiece. "Targets acquired."

_Targets?_

The man nodded several times. "Understood."

The Agents still kept their guns drawn.

"Hey," Asuka began. She got no further.

"Pilot Soryu," The man said emotionlessly. "Please refrain from speaking or acting in any way counter to our instructions. If you fail to do so I am authorised to take certain measures to ensure your compliance. Am I understood?"

Once again we both nodded. In short order a black windowless van pulled up in front of us. The side door slid open.

"Get in." The man said, gesturing with his pistol. We got in, followed by our escort of Section 2 Agents. Their side-arms remained in their hands for the whole trip down to the Geofront.

Asuka stared at the floor not even acknowledging my attempts to catch her eye.

I think that trip in the van was probably the loneliest that I have ever felt in my entire life.

* * *

><p>"Well, Third Child? I am awaiting your reply." My Father's voice fell strangely flat in the chill air of the office.<p>

Misato stood rigidly to attention beside me. I did feel bad for her having to suffer the Commander's wrath this way. She already was working sixteen hour days in her position as Head of Operations with NERV, as well as full time guardian to two overly hormonal and angst driven teenagers on top of that. She was a good person. She didn't deserve this.

Asuka remained staring at a point just near the base of my Father's desk. My mouth twisted slightly. I could read the anxiety in her in big bold letters. Asuka hated weakness. Asuka hated blind unquestioning obedience. Most of all Asuka hated disapproval and not having the ability to defend herself. Impotence was an anathema to the Second Child. I could see that she was almost being crushed by her powerlessness in that situation.

The two people I cared about more than any others were being made miserable by the man who seemed to despise me more than anything else in the World. My own Father. It was time to '_Sack Up_' as Toji would have said. I couldn't let the others suffer for my Father's apparent personal disdain of me.

I cleared my throat and attempted to stop my body swaying in time with the rhythm of the hammer and anvil that seemed to be clanging between my ears.

"It was my fault, Father." I could sense Misato stiffen beside me and a small gasp from Asuka.

"Commander." My Father said.

"It was my fault, _Commander_." I corrected, "I… I convinced the Second Child to come with me to… to the Arcade in the Shibuse Hypermall. She… She tried to refuse but I-I convinced her that we had been given the right as Evangelion Pilots to take personal time away from school as long as we continued piloting satisfactorily. I-I'm sorry Asuka, for lying to you about this." I said, though the girl continued to stare blankly, "And I apologise Fa… Commander. Please punish me as you see fit. But the Second Child and Captain Katsuragi bear no responsibility in this matter." I bowed my head. I could feel the eyes of everyone in that office upon me. I could sense Misato's disbelief at what I had done and I could definitely feel the ice blue eyes of Asuka boring into the side of my head from over eight feet away.

"I see." My Father finally responded. He remained impassive and silent for several more minutes. Finally he spoke again. "Very well. Captain Katsuragi, Pilot Soryu." They both stiffened. "You are dismissed."

"Sir?" Misato answered.

"I see that you have no blame to answer in this matter, although _responsibility_ is another issue entirely. You are both dismissed from my presence. I will discuss both blame and consequence with the Third Child further once you have departed."

"B-but…"

"Dismissed."

"Yes Sir." Misato and Asuka both bowed and exited the office quickly.

A still silence returned to the sterile office.

"Third Child."

"Yes, Commander?"

"I have allowed you to spare your co-workers from blame or punishment for the time. However, do not think that I believe your lies or applaud your imagined selflessness in taking the responsibility for today's actions. You are aware, are you not, of the consequences of failure in this struggle with the Angels? The fate of the whole of Humanity should not and must not be jeopardised by the whims and selfishness of a mere child. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes Sir."

"It is fortunate for all of us that Pilot Ayanami was available to us and showed the initiative to make her way to the Geofront as soon as she realised something was wrong, and then defeat the Angel single-handedly.

"Yes Sir." My head was swimming by this time and my stomach was nicely twisted on itself. The tension of waiting for my Father to pronounce judgement was unbearable. Thankfully, he was never one to mince words.

"I have wasted enough time on this matter. You are confined to your living quarters for one month, except when testing or on other NERV business. You are to receive no visitors in that time and your monthly stipend is also cut by two thirds for that period. The Second Child will bring home any schoolwork that you are required to complete so that you do not neglect your studies."

"Yes Sir." I gulped.

"I have been _very_ lenient with you this time Third Child. Do not disappoint me again or it will not go well with you. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Dismissed."

I bowed and staggered out of the office with my head spinning.

Misato and Asuka were waiting for me in the antechamber to my Father's office. Neither of them said a word to me, or each other as we made our way through the labyrinthine corridors of NERV to the employee car park. I climbed into the back of the ancient blue Alpine A310. Asuka, of course, took the front passenger seat. Misato climbed in, quickly gunned the engine and screeched off out of the car park and out onto the main road to the east.

"Misato… "I attempted to say.

"Do _not_ speak to me just yet, Shinji. We will talk about this when we get home."

Asuka still refused to even look at me.

Needless to say, the rest of the ride home sucked.

* * *

><p>"Now. I want the truth, from both of you!"<p>

Asuka and I sat across from Misato at the kitchen table. We had been ordered to sit there by our guardian as soon as we got home. Misato herself had changed out of her uniform and into her usual tank top and denim cut-offs. She had given Asuka a juice, me a glass of water and two paracetamol capsules, grabbed herself of Yebisu and sat down at the table.

"Well?" she said after neither of us answered her initial enquiry.

"You heard the idiot, Misato! I stupidly agreed to go to the Arcade with him because he lied to me and now everyone's pissed off with me when I didn't do anything wrong!"

Misato took a swig of her beer.

"I'm not interested in the bullshit that you told the Commander. Tell me the truth. Now."

Asuka stood up, knocking her chair over as she did.

"Fine!" she almost screamed the word. "Don't believe me! You always side with your precious little Shinji anyway! What's the big deal? We skipped school for one day! In case you haven't noticed we are fighting the entire Human Race's battles for them! I think that we deserve a little down time!"

"Sure Asuka, I agree." Misato said. "But _not_ when it endangers all of Humanity. You know what would happen if that Angel had got through?"

"But it didn't, did it? The Commander's precious little doll saved the day! So what's the big deal? Everyone's turning something minor into Chomolungma here!"

Chomo-what-what? Asuka liked to show off her higher level of education, a lot.

Misato sighed. "That's not the point. You guys _aren't_ normal teenagers. I wish that I could give you both a normal life, but I can't. It breaks my heart to see what you both have to go through. But these times aren't like any other in the History of the World. The survival of Humanity depends on you, for good or ill. If I could change that, I would. But I can't. You just aren't normal teenagers."

I finally decided to speak. "Misato, we know that. It's just what Asuka is saying is… "

"Oh, shut up, Third!" Asuka rounded her anger on me. "I don't need you to speak for me, I don't _want_ you to speak for me! You think that I'm such a useless little girl that I need a pathetic wimp like you to defend me? Well, _fuck you_! I don't want your help!"

"Asuka!" Misato said angrily.

"No!" the redhead screamed. "I hate this place!" She threw the glass of juice at the sink, smashing it to pieces. "I hate all of you!"

She stormed out of the kitchen and into her bedroom, slamming the sliding door so hard it bounced back to halfway open again. Quickly she shut it again, firmly.

I got up, fetched the dustpan out of the cupboard and began cleaning up the shattered glass from around the sink.

Misato sipped at her can of beer. "Shinji, I'm not trying to be an ogre here. It's just…"

"I know Misato. I'm sorry that we got you into trouble from the Commander. We… I just didn't think that things would go so badly."

"I know that Shinji. You're a good person. You deserve better than I can give you. I know also that you're protecting Asuka from the consequences of her actions. She knows it too. That's why she's so angry. Not at you though. She's more angry at herself for feeling so weak and powerless. She… she's a complicated girl. Don't take this all to heart, Shinji. Promise me that?"

I smiled, the movement painfully stretching the scab on my cheek. "I-I'll try Misato."

"Good boy… No, you're not a boy Shinji. You've proved yourself more of a man today than some I could think of. Now get yourself to bed, my wounded young man. You've had enough excitement for one day. I'll finish cleaning up here."

I did as I was told. In my mind I can still see her to this day. Dustpan in hand, sweeping up the last of the broken glass, humming a quiet tune to herself. Misato Katsuragi. Guardian, commanding officer, tease, psychologist, foster-mother, friend.

I felt so unworthy of her.

**End Chapter Three**


	4. Propinquity

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 4**

**Propinquity**

"Shit…. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit…. Fuck!"

I've always found profanity a great comfort in difficult times. So it is no surprise, perhaps, that I was repeating this mantra over and over to myself. God-damn that Shinji! Thinking he could be the big man and take the blame for yesterday's debacle. I wasn't going to stand for it!

I kicked a stone along the street as I walked to Tokyo-3 Middle School. _Fucking school_! If it wasn't such a boring school then none of this would need to have happened! I was beside myself with fury at the way things had gone. There was no way I would forgive the pathetic Third Child for making me feel like this.

_Shinji, Shinji, Shinji! _Arrgh! It was all his fault! Ever since I had arrived in this stupid City that boy had taken up far too much of my time and energy. Why I had thought that dragging that insipid lunkhead out for a day with the famous Asuka Soryu I was seriously beginning to question! And God help him if he thought I would be grateful to him for humiliating me like that. Bah! I had stormed out of the apartment this morning without even saying goodbye.

"Hey, Asuka!"

I looked up from my sour musings. "Oh, hey Hikari." My best friend was standing at the gate of the entrance to the school. She fell into step beside me as we continued into the school buildings.

"Where's Shinji?" A look of concern crossed her face. "He wasn't injured in the Angel attack yesterday, was he?"

I could feel my mouth twist bitterly. "That idiot? No… well, not really _injured_ I guess…"

Hikari's eyes widened. "He was hurt? How badly?" I had always suspected Hikari had a bit of a soft spot for Shinji. She was so soft-hearted, he was so soft headed. It made sense I guess. But she was too infatuated with that ape, Toji, to be any competit… _ahem…_

"Not badly, just a couple of cuts and bruises. Nothing major. He did more harm to himself with his own idiocy."

"Huh?"

"Well, let's just say that you won't be seeing him for a while. He's basically under house arrest for a whole month for pissing off the Commander."

"Oh, poor Shinji!"

I shoved my bag into my locker. "Oh yes, _'Poor Shinji'_" I said sarcastically. "Poor little precious Shinji-kun!" I couldn't keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"What happened Asuka?" Hikari said. "What did he do to make you so angry?"

Before I could answer the bell went to announce that the students had to be at their desks. Hikari had to be in the classroom to organise the students before the Sensei arrived. It was an undeniable Siren-Call to the Class Representative. _'Saved!'_ I thought thankfully to myself.

"We'll talk about this later!" She called out as she scurried off to class 2-A.

"Damn, shit, shit, shit, shit, Fuck!"

* * *

><p>"<em>Shinji? Shinji! Talk to me Shinji! Don't you dare fucking die on me, Baka!"<em>

"Asuka? Asuka!" The urgently hissed whisper finally got through to me.

"Wa… wake up Shinji…" I slurred blearily. Something hard and uncomfortable was pressed against my face.

"_Asuka!" _The whisper was more insistent. There was also, more troublingly, some barely suppressed giggles in the background. My mind struggled back to consciousness. Only one place could be this uncomfortable.

I opened my eyes and sat bolt upright in my seat. "Wha… Wassamatter?" I slurred, wiping a small snail-trail of drool off my chin.

"Asuka!" Hikari hissed at me from the next desk. "You were sleeping, _in class_!"

I couldn't fault her there. I was definitely in Class 2-A, Tokyo-3 Middle School. The spine deforming uncomfortableness of the chairs. The pre-Impact desks and the incessant drone of the Sensei all confirmed this in my mind.

"So what?" I shot back. "It's not like there's anything better to do!"

Hikari looked aghast. She really needed to loosen up with this whole 'Class Representative' thing, in my opinion. She took it all far too seriously. My rest, as one of the saviours of Humanity, was far more important than some fossilised old prune's reminiscence about life in Kobe before Second Impact.

"But, Asuka…" She whispered. "You were calling out for _Shinji!_"

_Oh… Crap…_

I remembered that I had been dreaming about being trapped under the rubble during the Angel battle of the day before. I had regained consciousness in the dusty and cramped space under the dumpster lid, which I remember was pressing _so_ hard down onto my back. I recall seeing Shinji was pinned beneath me. The next thing that I had noticed was that my breasts were painfully squashed against his ribs. I was about to berate him about his perversion when I saw how still and pale he was. In the cramped space with its dusty filtered light I couldn't tell if he was even breathing. The painfully tiny confines had started to close in around me, I confess that I was beginning to panic. What if he was dead? What if I was trapped under an enormous pile of debris with a dead Shinji? A dead Shinji that I had never had a chance to…

A scream began to build up within me, I remember shouting at him to wake up, or something like that. I tried to shake him but all I managed to do was create a choking shower of brick and concrete dust. I coughed, struggling to breathe when suddenly, Shinji obviously was alive because he tried to sit up and nearly gave me a serious concussion! Dear Lord that boy has a hard head! I could still feel the egg shaped lump from that impact sitting painfully just above my hairline.

But anyway, back to that matter at hand. Hikari was still staring at me with a sly half grin on her face. "Well? What were you calling out Shinji's name for Asuka? What _was_ he doing in your dreams? Hmm?"

I shook my head, both to clear my still foggy brain and to answer her question.

"As if I'd dream about that moron! It sounds more like a freaking nightmare!" I had to nip this in the bud right away. Hikari was enough of a doe-eyed romantic, and not to mention read enough trashy novels, that she was always sure that '_Eva-Pilots-In-Love'_ was a mere eyelid flutter and soft-filtered lens shot away.

She sure had some funny ideas for such an apparently straight-laced girl. I don't even want to think about the secret stash of _Shonen-Ai_ manga that I knew she kept hidden under her bed at home. It's always the quiet ones! Bleargh!

"Hmm…" She said unconvinced. "We're _talking_ about this at lunch Asuka!"

'_Oh…. shit, shit, shit, shit, Fuck!'_

* * *

><p>Let me just say this right from the get-go. Japanese school cafeterias suck.<p>

All you ever get is rice. Rice with chicken. Rice with beef. Rice with pork. Rice with eel. Rice with tofu for crying out loud! Would it kill them to serve a Wiener schnitzel or sausage with potatoes once in a while? Seriously?

I took my tray of beef and rice in an indeterminate sauce to a vacant cafeteria table and sat down, muttering sour nothings to myself. In my annoyance I actually managed to snap the ridiculous disposable chopsticks they handed out in half just as Hikari pulled out the chair across from me and sat down.

"Why don't they give us forks like civilized human beings would use?" I asked testily, throwing the offending items across the table at her. She just grinned at me, damn her, and unwrapped her home made bento box provocatively in front of me.

"Here," She said still smiling. "I always bring a spare." As she produced a plastic Spork from within the folds of her bento's wrapping and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I said with minimal grace and immediately began to plough into my meal.

"So," Hikari said, daintily picking out some pickled vegetables from her bento box with her own lacquered chopsticks. "What's the deal with you and Ikari-kun?"

"Deal?" I replied through a mouthful of food. "There is no _deal_. There never _was_ a deal. There never _will _be a deal."

"Sorry, Asuka, I'm just not convinced."

"Are you calling me a liar Horaki?" I said attempting to sound pissed off, not just nervous, as I really was.

"No, not at all." She said primly. "I'm simply intrigued by your _odd_ behaviour this morning is all."

I didn't answer, hoping she would take the hint and drop it. Not bloody likely.

"You were calling out his name in your sleep during class, Asuka."

I just glowered at her.

"You were all like, _"Don't die Shinji! Wake up Shinji! Don't leave me Shinji!" _What is all of that about?"

"So, you were eavesdropping on me in class?" Sometimes the best defence is a good offence.

"I would hardly class it as eavesdropping. You weren't exactly what I would call quiet about it. I mean not only I could hear it, Kotono, Megumi and Yuko all heard it too!"

The heat rushing to my face was the only answer I could give. Sadly it was far more honest than I wanted to be.

Hikari's eyes went wide at my blush. "Oh my God! What happened Asuka? Why weren't you and Shinji at school before the attack yesterday?"

"We're Pilots!" I tried to bluff my way out of it. "We had to be at NERV for, you know, testing and stuff!"

"Rei was at school before the attack, why wasn't she with you at NERV?"

"I don't know!" I said, pushing my rice bowl away in frustration. Hikari was like a goddamned bull terrier. "Why don't you ask her?"

"I did, yesterday morning when neither you nor Shinji showed up to class. She said that she was unaware of any tests scheduled for that day."

I slumped in my chair, defeated. "So?"

"So what happened?"

"Nothing happened!"

"Asuka!"

I growled in frustration. "Fine! I asked that idiot if he wanted to spend the day with me, we went on a stupid picnic in the hills and got caught up in the Angel attack, and almost buried alive may I add, before clawing our way out only to find that fucking Wondergirl had beaten us to it and defeated the Angel without us!" I took a deep breath. "If that stupid idiot Shinji hadn't held me up _I _would have defeated that Angel and got the glory instead of that emotionless _doll _Ayanami!"

Hikari looked shocked at my outburst. "So, when you were calling out, _don't die Shinji,_ you were… "

"Yes, that's right!" I snapped, interrupting her. "I was dreaming about being trapped under the rubble with Shinji!" I almost yelled, I could feel a prickling sensation beginning behind my eyes. "I actually thought that that stupid moron was dead for a moment there! You got that Hikari? Dead! What was I going to do without…." I stopped, but it was too late. My nails dug into the table top as I tried to hold it together. I was too afraid to even blink lest the tears I could feel building up in my eyes might flow over. Asuka Langley Soryu did not cry. Ever.

"Asuka." Hikari said quietly, placing her hand on mine. I felt too numb, too powerless to even remove it. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. But… S-Shinji's okay, right? You said you both got out okay?"

"Yeah. We got out okay. The idiot got himself a black eye and nearly gave me a concussion when he finally woke up, but we got out okay."

"Then… why are you so angry with him?"

I sighed. "Because… because he's an idiot." I said without venom.

"Asuka!"

"Fine!" My resolve finally broken. "I'm pissed off with him because he tried to take the blame for the whole thing in front of Misato and the Commander! He told them that the whole thing was his idea, can you imagine how I felt?" I said indignantly. "That's right! Completely humiliated!"

"But, Asuka…"

"No, Hikari. I'm not some helpless little girl who needs big brave Shinji to protect me! He can't just sideline me like that. I… I won't stand for it!"

"Asuka. Why would Shinji want to take the blame for you? You've said yourself, what's the one thing that Shinji wants the most?"

"That's easy." I said. Not seeing the trap opening up wide in front of me. "He wants to be praised by his all-powerful Daddy! He practically rolls over and plays dead if his father even notices him. It's pathetic!"

"Sooo… He risked the thing he fears the most, his father's disapproval, to protect you from getting being punished? That so romantic!"

"Wha-what?" I was completely blindsided by Hikari's ability to see the merest thing as proof of budding romance. I was so shocked I was completely unaware of the sound of heavy, sneaker clad feet coming up from the direction of the lunch counter.

"Don't be so dense Asuka!" Hikari said brightly. "There's only one reason that Shinji would put himself at risk for you. He cares about you Asuka! Isn't it obvious?"

"Have you been sniffing the Whiteboard Markers or something?"

"Face it Asuka! He likes you! I mean it's been _so_ obvious to everyone that he has had something for you for months now! You're both pilots, you train together, you live in the same apartment, he makes you lunch every day. It's inevitable that the two of you would fall in love!"

"Are you _insane?_"

"Come on, Asuka! I see the way you two look at each other, the whole class can see it! The only ones who seem blind to the fact that you two care deeply for one another is you and Shinji!"

"She's right, you know, Demon-Girl." Suddenly Suzuhara slid down into the seat next to Hikari. Startling the bejesus out of me. "Sorry Class-Rep, I couldn't help overhearing some of what you were saying." He turned and looked at me from across the cafeteria table. "Shinji, the poor sap, is crazy about you, even I can see that! You know what else? I don't like it. Shinji's a sensitive guy, a _good_ guy that deserves a lot better. 'Cos, you know what? Most of the time you treat him like something you just scraped off your shoe, even though it's clear to everyone that you like him."

"Toji!" Hikari exclaimed.

"Like I'm interested in the opinion of a dumb jock! Don't you have some place else to be right now? I'm sure that somewhere out there, a village is missing its idiot!"

"Asuka!" Hikari exclaimed.

"You! You're too busy being Queen Bitch Eva Pilot to give a nice guy like Shinji a break. Why don't you get off your high hobby-horse and look around you? No one else in this World would put up with your shit the way he does! One day I can only hope that he wakes up to see the bitch that you are and leaves you all on your own. God knows it's what you deserve!"

"Toji!" Hikari exclaimed.

"Arrgh! I can't take any more of this!" I yelled, standing up abruptly and pushing the half-finished plate away from me. I stormed out of the cafeteria almost blindly, knocking over a dustbin as I blundered out. I didn't care, I just had to get out of there.

* * *

><p>After lunch the school day dragged on and on, and on.<p>

The lowlight was probably the NERV Promotional Department DVD that the old Sensei showed during the middle of the afternoon. Eventually he managed to insert it into the player and then the old pre-Impact television that sat in the corner of the classroom took an age to warm up. Finally the class was subjected to NERV PR's latest atrocity:

"**Triumph of the Willing… Evangelion: The New Dreadnought and You."**

The documentary opened with shots of the clouds above Tokyo-3, and then moved through the clouds to float above the assembling masses below, with the intention of portraying the beauty and majesty of the scene. The cruciform shadow of The Commander's plane was visible as it passed over the tiny figures marching below, accompanied by music from Richard Wagner's Die Valkyrie. Upon arriving at Tokyo-3 Airport, The Commander emerged from his plane to thunderous applause and a cheering crowd. He is then driven in an open top car into Tokyo-3, through equally enthusiastic people, to NERV Headquarters where a night rally is later held.

How very Leni Riefenstahl.

As a proud German I found it all deeply offensive.

The rest of the video was a mish-mash of disinformation and 'Duck and Cover' condescension. The only one even vaguely interested was that pseudo-military nut-bar Aida.

As for me, I just tried to sleep and not think about my conversation with Hikari at lunch. '_Eva pilots in love' _it was like a bad soap opera on NHK Daytime or something.

I didn't care about that baka! Did I? Why had I invited him out for the day yesterday then? Was it just boredom? I had planned the day and its picnic lunch for over a fortnight. Waiting until the weather and circumstances seemed just perfect to ask him.

And what about that meathead Suzuhara? Where did he get off saying that I treated Shinji like dirt? I was the number one Evangelion Pilot. It was only natural and fitting that I behaved in a manner befitting my rank. Shinji knew that. Didn't he?

As for our supposed _'Romantic'_ picnic… I needed a break from the city and its artificial surrounds and daily grind of school and training. That was all. Nothing more than that. I invited him along because I didn't want to go alone and I enjoyed his company…

That was all there was to it. Wasn't it?

Who was I trying to convince? I for one was having a lot of trouble believing a word of it.

The film finally finished. Throughout the classroom students rubbed their bleary eyes and struggled back into seated positions. Before the old Teacher could bore us even more than we already were, the bell went to announce the end of the school day.

"Class dismissed." The Sensei droned.

"Rise, Bow, Sit!" Hikari bellowed.

The classroom quickly emptied of students, leaving only myself and Hikari, who was busy cleaning up the room. The air in the room was heavy and oppressive. The sky to the west was dark and threatening with the promise of a storm. I remained at my desk, head cradled in my hands. Still grappling with my own personal storm of emotions that the last few days had stirred up in me.

Finally I looked up.

"Hikari?" I said.

"Yes Asuka?" My best friend answered.

"Am I really a bitch to Shinji?"

"Don't pay any attention to Toji." She said kindly. "His heart is on the right place, he's just a bit over protective of Shinji because of, you know, how they met."

"You mean when he punched him?"

"Well, yeah. Toji has a strong sense of what's right. He still feels bad for how he treated Shinji all of those months ago. He just doesn't want to see his friend hurt is all."

"How come you know so much about Toji Suzuhara suddenly?"

Hikari's cheeks coloured ever so slightly. "I'm the Class Representative. It's my duty to know about all of the students in the class."

She must have thought that I was as stupid as Suzuhara looked if she thought I bought that. But that wasn't of interest to me at that moment.

"So, stop avoiding the question."

"Wha-What question, Asuka?"

"Am I a bitch to Shinji?"

"Well…." Hikari suddenly seemed very interested in arranging the board erasers just right. "I would never use that word… And you are my best friend, so I know that you can be kind, sometimes… "

I buried my head back in my hands. There's an old saying in English that I've heard, about being damned with faint praise. Using that analogy, Hikari was consigning my fate to the lowest circle of Hell.

"So, in other words, yes." I muttered through my hands miserably.

I could sense her coming closer as she walked across and lay a gentle hand on my hair. Hikari was really far too good to me. I had done nothing to deserve such a friend. I still miss her to this day. I know that she felt awful for upsetting me, but all she had really done was try to protect me. Protect me from seeing myself as others saw me.

I had to keep it together. That hot prickling sensation behind my eyes was building again. Suddenly the heaviness of the air and the weight of years of suppression of emotion, suppression of need, reached an unbearable level in my heart. I felt I was being crushed beneath it all.

I had to get out of there. I stood up.

"I gotta go Hikari!" I blurted out as I headed for the door.

"Asuka… "

I ignored my friends call and staggered out into the corridor. Fumbled with the combination on my locker, grabbed my bag and fled the school. I just wanted to get home. Home and safe.

I know that God definitely has a sense of theatre, because just as I left the school grounds the rain really started to fall in earnest.

* * *

><p>I took my saturated shoes off at the entryway to the apartment. I didn't bother announcing my return home for the day. Misato was at NERV pulling another twenty hour shift in the wake of the last battle and Shinji… well that was all still a little too raw for me to think of right then. I made my way, dripping water off my sodden clothing all the while, from the entry and to the bathroom. Despite the earlier heat of the day, my wet clothes were now starting to chill my body through to the bone.<p>

Once in the bathroom I quickly stripped off my wet uniform and turned on the hot tap of the shower. The apartment's hot water service always took a couple of minutes to warm up. I stood there, waiting for it. The girl in the bathroom mirror stared back at me like a stranger. Standing there, naked, deathly pale with her red-rimmed eyes and her long red hair hanging in dark, lank strands over her bare shoulders.

_Who are you? _I thought.

Finally, mercifully, the image in the mirror was obscured by the rising steam from the shower cubicle. Adjusting the flow I stepped into the shower and let the streaming hot water warm me from the outside in.

_Who am I? _The thought wouldn't leave me. My worries and cares weren't evaporating in the steam of the shower like they were supposed to. I worked my favourite Strawberry Balsam shampoo into my hair so vigorously I could actually feel my fingernails scratching at my scalp.

_Who am I?_ No answer. Who was the Asuka that others saw? The high achieving, college graduate Evangelion Pilot? The child prodigy?

The Bitch? A spoiled brat who pushed others away with her abrasive personality? A pride filled and abusive snob? That seemed far more likely to me. A sob escaped me, and then another. I tried to keep it under control, but my body refused to comply. My hitching breaths echoed sharply in the small bathroom, I only hoped that they weren't audible from outside. I didn't want Shinji to hear me cry.

_Shinji…_

What about Shinji?

The people around me, Misato, Hikari, Toji and Kensuke, even Wondergirl I'm sure, saw Shinji as a kind and considerate person, someone who was worth protecting. Was worthy of kindness. Someone who would be missed and grieved for if he was killed in the next Angel Battle.

As for me? I doubt very much if any of them would care overly if I died tomorrow. Some of them might even be glad.

I almost smiled to myself between sobs. I knew one person that would care. One person who miss me. One person who would mourn me, hold my name close and cherish my memory. Someone for whom my existence mattered.

_Shinji. _I startled myself by saying his name out loud.

"Shinji." I said it again. Strangely, it made me feel a little better.

"Shinji." My breathing began to come under control. I inhaled the steam filled air deeply.

"Shinji." It was barely a whisper. But it brought me back to myself. To where I knew all along that I had to come. To a new resolution if you will. I gave myself a couple more minutes in the shower to rinse the shampoo from my hair. Then I turned off the water, briskly dried off with a towel before wrapping another fresh large red towel around my body.

My hand squeaked on the glass as I used it to wipe the condensation off the mirror and once again stare at the girl staring back out at me.

_I know you._ I said to myself. The girl in the mirror smiled weakly back out at me.

I knew now what it was that I needed to do.

The only worry I had now was, would I actually have the courage to do it?

**End Chapter 4**


	5. Crossing the Rubicon

{Warning: Contains Lemon scene.}

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 5**

**Crossing the Rubicon**

Was Asuka _crying?_

No… that was impossible. Asuka never _ever_ cried. She was too strong, too proud to allow herself to give in to simple human emotions like that.

There it was again. I could definitely hear it, coming from the apartment's bathroom. The sound of a hitched breath was clearly discernable over the running water of the shower. If that wasn't someone sobbing_ and_ trying to suppress the sound of their crying then I'm not sure what it was.

Was she really _that_ pissed off with me?

I was only trying to stop her and Misato from incurring my Father's wrath. I mean, he was always disappointed and annoyed with me, this latest debacle didn't really change any of that much from my perspective. I just had figured that why should they have to suffer at his hands as well? I swear I wasn't trying to upstage her or marginalise either of them in any way.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. No matter what I seemed to do back in those days, it only ever made things worse.

Eventually, I knew, this silent treatment from Asuka would stop. She would yell and scream at me, I would apologise, she would yell some more and then, hopefully, my life would begin to return to something resembling normal.

Then all I had to do was get through this month of confinement in the apartment, and I could see my friends again. That would be nice. Although, to tell the truth, one month alone was not something that really bothered me. I had got used to being alone when I had lived with my old Teacher. He was a kindly, but distant old man who didn't really have a lot to say to an awkward and not terribly academically inclined youth like me.

The silence of solitude did get to me sometimes, but my trusty old SDAT managed to keep the worst of my anxieties at bay. Most of the time.

I heard the shower stop. Asuka would be coming out soon. This would be a test of her ability to not speak to me. I hadn't really left my room at all that day. I was still in my old t-shirt and shorts that I had spent the whole afternoon in. I hadn't even prepared any kind of dinner or anything like that. It was all a part of my plan, you see. Once Asuka saw that there was no food ready for her, then she would probably come and yell at me to make her some dinner. If she came and yelled at me then she would finally be speaking to me. Once that silence between us was broken then things would return to a more normal footing and life would become more bearable once again.

As plans go it might sound pathetic, but I was pretty confident that it would work. You see I just couldn't bear it if Asuka wouldn't talk to me. Even if all that she called me was 'Baka'. That was enough.

At the sound of the bathroom door opening I rolled over instinctively on the bed, my back to the door. If I had calculated correctly then she would be coming through that door in but a few short minutes to berate me for my laziness in allowing the Great Asuka Langley Soryu to starve. If I pretended to be asleep then I was in a better defensive posture for any assault that might come.

My bedroom door slid open, far sooner than I had anticipated. Butterflies fluttered violently in my stomach. This was definitely going to be a big one if she was at my door so quickly. I tried my best to appear to be asleep.

So far my plan, such as it was, was going along nicely. I knew that I just had to brave the coming verbal assault and then Asuka would have it out of her system. The tension in the apartment would dissipate and my life would return to its safe, humdrum, routine.

Silence. I _knew_ that she was there, I could almost feel her presence watching me from the doorway. After what seemed like an age I could hear her soft footfalls coming towards me across the carpet. I braced myself. Unexpectedly there was a light _whump _and the unmistakeable feeling of a weight landing on the bed behind me.

Then nothing. I could feel her sitting there. I could hear her breathing. The scent of her Strawberry Balsam shampoo enveloped me. But that was it. Nothing else happened for what felt like an hour, though it probably was no more than five or six minutes. I lay as still as I could and waited. What else could I do?

A hand was gently placed on my shoulder.

"Shinji?" Asuka's voice was soft, barely above a whisper. I was so taken aback that I still didn't move.

"Shinji… I know that you're awake."

"Uh… Umm… Hi Asuka." I said, still keeping my back to her.

"Look at me Shinji." She said with a small sniff.

I turned over to face her, prepared for anything, I thought. I was wrong. I was definitely _not _prepared for what I saw.

Asuka sat on the side of my bed, only a red towel wrapped around her, tied just above her breasts and finishing at her upper thighs. Her still damp hair hung in unkempt strands around her face and down to her bare shoulders. Her eyes… her red rimmed eyes seemed to glisten with moisture in the light that shone in through the bedroom window.

She was so beautiful it almost made me ache with longing just to touch her. To hold her. To comfort her. Though I knew that I was too much of a coward to ever actually do it.

"Shinji…"

"Yeah."

"Ca-can, can we talk?"

"Uh-huh."

She smiled at me for a moment. Then her face grew serious again. "Shinji, do… do you think that I'm a bitch?"

Of all the things I had expected, this wasn't even close.

"No." I shook my head.

"Why not?"

I was _really_ confused. "What do you mean Asuka?"

"You know!" she said less gently. "A bitch. A bossy, violent, evil unlovable bitch!"

Had the World ended and been replaced by a weird alternate reality without me noticing? "No Asuka! You're none of those things! You're strong, you're independent, you-you're intelligent, you're fearless, _and_ you're popular. I wish that I could be half of the things that you are Asuka!"

She shook her head, showering me with droplets of water from her still wet hair. "No, Shinji-kun." She said, a single teardrop spilling delicately from her eyes and rolling down her cheek. "I'm all of those things. You're the only one who seems to see past the ugliness that is me and find something better. And how do I thank you for it? I treat you like garbage, that's how." Another tear followed the first. "I… I-I'm so sorry Shinji." She sniffed. She bowed her head, seemingly unable to say anything more.

I was shocked. _Ugliness? _"Ugliness? Asuka… I-I don't understand. How can you think that? You-you're the most beautiful person I know. I… " I trailed off. Had I just told the Great Asuka Langley Soryu that I thought she was beautiful? Surely swift death awaited me.

"No, I'm _ugly!"_ she yelled, tears now streaming down her cheeks. "My heart is ugly and black and filled with hate and anger. No one can stand to be around me for long! Everyone leaves me, everyone abandons me! Even my own Mother… Everyone! You know what? I don't even blame them! I can't stand _myself_ most of the time… You… even you'll leave me Shinji. I know it."

"Never…" I said, shaking my head.

"Bullshit Shinji! Why the fuck would you stay? I treat you like shit, _all _of the time! I'm mean, I'm spiteful and nasty… Nobody would… "

"No!" I interrupted angrily. "_You're_the one that's talking bullshit Asuka!" My more meek instincts overpowered by the sheer shock of hearing Asuka talk like this. "You're the most popular person I know, people flock to you because you're beautiful, you're charismatic, you're intelligent! Compared to you I'm just a nobody Asuka! And as long as you can tolerate having a sap like me around, I'm not going anywhere!"

Her eyes widened in shock at my tone, before her face became unreadable as I went on. After I finished my speech she was quiet for several minutes. Finally she spoke.

"People only hang around me 'cos I'm a Pilot and I'm foreign and I talk big. They don't really know what I'm like, and they don't care. I'm just a rung up the school popularity ladder to most of them.

"Not to me Asuka. I know you better than they do, and I promise you I will never abandon you!"

She just stared at me, her eyes almost impossibly blue against the redness of her tear stained cheeks. The only sound was the ubiquitous droning of the cicadas outside of the apartment building.

She eventually rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms and smiled at me. "Beautiful, huh?" She said softly.

All I could do was nod solemnly. The silence between us hung heavy in the room

"So…" She said after a moment's further pause. "D-do you wanna kiss me?"

Suddenly the room seemed to become infinitely quieter. _"Kiss…" _I tried to say, but the power of speech had deserted me temporarily.

"Well?" She said, her voice trembling slightly. "Do you…?"

I remember just nodding dumbly.

"Alright then." She said, standing up from the side of the bed. "I'm not coming down there to you! Get up here in front of me!"

I got up off the bed and stood facing her. A few awkward seconds followed as we stared at each other.

"Well, Third Child!" She said in mock seriousness. "Are you going to just stand there like a startled bonobo, or are you going to put your arms around me?"

I reached out and put me arms around her upper body. The bare skin of her back felt cool and soft to the touch. A few wet strands of her hair hung over my fingers. Her arms clasped themselves around my torso and pulled me forward. We stared at each other. Eyes locked.

"Okay…" She breathed. "Here I come."

After an initial clash of teeth we both pulled back a little before leaning forward again. Her lips were so soft and her scent was so intoxicating. The closeness and touch sent little electric bolts of pleasure into my awestruck brain. After just a few seconds we broke off the kiss and just looked at each other, our arms still interlocked.

"Was… was that your first one?" She asked me.

I nodded. "You?"

"Yeah." She said, her sapphire blue eyes locked on my own. She closed them and leaned her head forward. I followed suit and once again our lips met. This may only have been the second ever kiss for both of us, but Asuka definitely took to it with enthusiasm. Her lips and mine intertwined and moved against each other. I was just trying my best just to keep up with her. I could feel her tongue playing along my own as our hands moved as if of their own will across the backs of each other's bodies.

I was surely in some kind of heaven. To be in the arms of, and kissing this beautiful girl was not something that was meant for the likes of me, surely. Nothing in my life had prepared me for the rush of pleasure, of sheer unadulterated joy that that second kiss sent surging through my teenaged body. My brain was on endorphin overload. It made me feel brave, perhaps foolishly so. Finally, sadly from my perspective, Asuka pulled back and we were once again entwined in each other's arms, standing in the middle of my small bedroom, faces mere millimetres apart.

"I love you Asuka." I said, without even thinking. My feelings needed a voice, and I gave into them without care for the consequences.

Asuka's eyes widened and she loosened her grip on me and stepped back. Panic clawed at my stomach as a sinking feeling took the strength out of my legs and I collapsed backwards and ended up seated back on the edge of my bed. I looked up in fear at Asuka. I had gone too far, I knew it. _'Idiot'_ I thought. How could I have been so stupid as to let my runaway emotions ruin the single most beautiful moment of my life?

Asuka just stood there, still in her red towel. Her head bowed so that her hair shadowed the top half of her face. Her expression, or what I could see of it, was heartbreakingly forlorn.

"A-Asuka, I… I'm sorr…"

"Don't" She said in a soft, sad voice. "Don't you _dare_ say that you're sorry Shinji."

I sat there and stared at her.

"Don't you say sorry for saying that, not if you _really _meant it." She said. Finally she looked up at me, tears tracked down her face. "Do you _really_ mean it Shinji?"

"Asuka… "

"Do you mean it?" She said, more forcefully.

I gulped. "Y-Yes."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"_Why_ do you love me, baka?" She almost was shouting now. "_**Why?**_ I'm just a bad tempered, self-centred bitch!"

Oh boy, this was really turning into an emotional boner coaster here.

"You might feel that way Asuka. I-I can't help what you feel um… I want you… uh… "I stumbled over my words at the worst possible time. Despite herself Asuka smiled at my discomfiture.

"Yeeees, Shinji-kun?"

"I-uh, want you to uh… feel… "Oh crap, I was completely losing my train of thought as she kept staring at me, a half smile now on her lips.

I sighed. I couldn't win. "It's true. I love you Asuka. I have for a long time now. I can't see you the way you describe yourself. All-All I can ask is of you is that you believe me when I say it." I swallowed loudly. These big emotional scenes were never my thing and I really couldn't believe just how corny I actually sounded. I had meant every syllable I had said, right from the bottom of my aching heart. I just couldn't hope to match the depth of my feelings with the ineffectualness of my words.

The heady buzz from the kissing was starting to grow steadily colder under her scrutiny. I just hoped that I hadn't ruined everything with my bone-headed ramblings, because I would do _anything_ for her to kiss me like that again.

The smirk slowly left her face and she stared down at me for a few seconds longer. Her expression now completely unfathomable.

Her hands reached out and stroked my face gently. I sat transfixed as she slowly bent down and kissed me once again on the lips. Just a gentle kiss, no tongue, no force, just a long soft and totally heavenly kiss that raised goose bumps all over my body and sent waves of joy throughout every fibre of my being.

Finally, she broke off the kiss. "I believe you." She breathed. I just nodded silently at her. "Promise me that you'll never leave me?"

"Asuka, I…"

"_Promise me!_ Promise me that you'll never abandon me Shinji! Promise me that and I… I swear that I'll be yours forever."

"I promise Asuka! I would never abandon you, no matter what happened!"

"You mean it?"

"I promise I will never leave you. I-I swear it on my Mother's…"

"Don't." She put a finger on my lips. "Don't."

I hung my head. Cursing myself for the awkwardness I had brought back to this moment. I couldn't meet her eyes as I inwardly lectured myself on not fucking up this most beautiful moment in my life. I stared unconsciously at the area where the top of her breasts met her towel, without thinking taking in the alluring way the curve continued past the top of the red towelling, bulging out to give a suggestion of the roundness and shape of those breasts before tapering down into her shapely waist and back out with the curves of her hips. I wasn't even aware I was doing it, it was just my mind, and hormones, on autopilot. Until…

"Ahem… My eyes are up here!"

I could feel the heat rushing up to my face. "I… I…"

Asuka's smile was bright and genuine at my embarrassment, but there was also something else behind it that I just couldn't read.

"So, _Shinji-kun_, you like what you see?"

Too scared to answer I just nodded, blushing.

"This towel," She said holding the top seam of the material. "Is the Impenetrable Wall of Jericho, Third Child! Do you _know_ what that means?"

She had used this analogy on me before. "It means… it…it cannot be breached?" I said, confused by where this was going. Asuka surprised me, again, by laughing out loud.

"No you dunderhead! Don't you know anything about what actually happened to the Walls of Jericho?"

I shook my head, bewildered beyond belief by the circles that this girl could run around me.

She paused for a short moment, "Then allow me to _show_ you, Shinji-kun!" With just a moments hesitation she tugged on the knot on the top of it and the towel promptly dropped to the floor at her feet, leaving her standing naked, hands on her hips and a slight but endearing blush on her cheeks, in the middle of my bedroom.

I gaped. I goggled. I stared slack-jawed and open mouthed. I very nearly exploded. I had read enough manga to be mildly surprised that a fountain of blood failed to burst forth from my nostrils. I assumed at the time that the blood had been uh… redirected elsewhere, let's say. She was _so_ beautiful. Her still damp hair clung to her shoulders. A few rivulets of water ran down her goose pimpled flesh to her perfectly shaped breasts with the small dark circles of her nipples sticking up slightly in the cool air of the room. The hollow of her toned belly flaring out at her hips with a small, demure tuft of ginger hair her between her legs.

I took all of this in, my eyes drank in her beauty. I had never seen, never imagined anything this transcendentally gorgeous would ever even have existed, let alone be standing here in front of me.

Asuka, on the other hand, was blushing even more noticeably now. "Well?" She said impatiently, folding her arms under her breasts. "Are you just going to sit there with your mouth hanging open and pitching a tent in your shorts? Say something for crying out loud!"

"Uh… Asuka. You're beautiful!" I could feel tears welling up behind my eyes. A couple of them spilled out and down my cheek before I could even think to try and stop them.

Asuka's eyes softened and she stepped in closer to me, taking my face in her hands once more. "Why are you crying then?"

"I-I just," I sniffed. "I never expected to be this…uh… like, this happy. To ever kiss you, to see you like… I just was s-so sure that my life would be spent alone…. I can't…" I lost the power to speak as Asuka pulled my head close against her chest and held me tightly as my hot tears ran down her breasts and onto her belly.

We stayed like that for some time.

"Poor Baka-Shinji." She said gently. "You really are a sad little marshmallow beneath that invincible exterior, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh." I said nodding, enjoying the sensation and scent of her bare skin against my face. I didn't resist as she began to pull my t-shirt up my body and I raised my arms so to make it easier for her to pull it off me completely. She scrunched it up and used it to wipe some of the residual tears from my face before tossing it onto the floor.

She looked down at me and smiled. "Though it is nice to see that all of this outpouring of emotion hasn't affected _some_ things!"

I followed her gaze and noted with embarrassment that my shorts were doing nothing to hide the raging erection that had been camped inside them for the past twenty minutes.

"Oh, God." I said. "Thermal expansion…"

That drew a short laugh from her, before her face grew serious again. "I want to see it."

"Wha… "

"I want to see it! You think that I'm standing her completely nude and I'm just going to let you sit there and ogle me? It's my turn now Third Child. Lose the shorts! I want to see it!"

Feeling incredibly self-conscious I lay back on the bed. Arching my back up I hesitated for a second before yanking my shorts down past my feet and tossing them into a far corner of the room. My erection just kinda sprang out as the shorts were pulled past them. Now it was my turn to blush.

Asuka sat back down on the bed next to me. "Wow." She said. _Well that was encouraging, I guess_. "Can I touch it?" She was almost coy in the way she said it. I just nodded. '_This must be a dream'. _Was all I could think._ 'I hope that it doesn't end too soon.'_

Her hand was smaller than mine, and felt cool to the touch as it wrapped around the shaft of my penis. She just sat there, holding it in her hand with an almost puzzled expression on her face.

"It feels warm," she whispered after a moment. "Really… really warm."

She gave it a gentle squeeze which caused it to jump a little in her hand. Slowly she began to stroke it, moving her hand along its entire length, stopping each time just below the head before sliding back down to its base. A low moan escaped me, Asuka stopped for a second, before renewing her attentions.

I looked at her, her face was so focussed. Her eyes almost glazed as she watched her hand move up and down. Her breasts swayed slightly in time with her movements. All too quickly I could feel my muscles tighten and the pressure building up inside me. I couldn't hold on much longer.

"A-Asuka." I gasped. "I-I'm gonna… "

She seemed to understand what I was trying to convey. Her hand ceased its stroking and she crawled up the bed and kissed my urgently on the lips, her tongue teasing the inside of my mouth.

"My turn." She breathed sultrily in my ear. I understood and rolled off the bed as she then lay on her back. I stood looking down at her for a moment. The beautiful and mighty Asuka Langley Soryu was lying naked on my bed, looking up at me with the hunger written plain in her bright blue eyes!

"Hurry up, baka!"

Not needing to be told twice I sat down on the bed and bent over to kiss her, her lips caressed mine hungrily as I brought my hand up and gingerly cupped her right breast. A small moan was stifled by our kisses as I rubbed and stroked the nipple, which hardened and grew under my fingers. It felt so good. So firm and yet supple beneath my hand. The gasps from Asuka as I continued to massage it were sweeter than anything I had ever heard.

Moving my head down I took the nipple into my mouth. To hear the gasp of pleasure as I held it in my lips and tickled it with my tongue was simply heavenly. Still with her breast in my mouth I moved my hand down to between her legs, past the crinkly pubic hair and began to caress the lips of her vulva. The warmth and moisture of her lips as they opened up beneath my fingers was incredible. As were the moans of ecstasy that those caresses brought forth from her. I continued on, my fingers becoming slick and hot with the redheaded girl's growing excitement.

I kept going, alternately teasing her nipples with my lips and tongue and kissing her sweet mouth. All the while my right hand continued its massaging and probing of her most private area.

I was struck suddenly by the memory of a drunken Misato, way back before Asuka even came to Japan, putting her arm around my shoulders and slurring _"You wanna keep a girl forever, you gotta kiss her, you know, down there…"_ Followed by some rather embarrassing gesticulations towards the critical area. I remember being mortified with embarrassment, and Misato laughing drunkenly at my blush, but it put me in mind to see if it actually worked.

Asuka was still breathing heavily, small moans of pleasure escaping her as my fingers continued their work.

I moved back up from her breast and kissed her again. My hand still not ceasing to caress her. "I wanna try something." I said.

"Uh-huh…"

I moved back down until I was kneeling between her spread legs, scooting just a little further back I lay on my stomach at the end of the bed and brought my face down between her legs. I took in the sheer delicate beauty of her, the musky scent of it and the small, neatly trimmed, patch of light ginger hair just above it. A small note of sheer disbelief at where I was and what I was about to do sounded in the back of my mind. I dismissed it. Nothing could distract me from the Redheaded Goddess before me. Hesitating for just a second I finally leaned forward and kissed her glistening sex and quickly used my tongue to explore it fully. Asuka gasped and clutched her hands into my hair, forcing me firmly into contact with her as I lapped and probed her with my tongue.

I reached it as far as I could inside her. The taste here was very strong, and I found it a bit over powering, so I brought my fingers back and pushing them gently inside her I continued my licking and exploring of her inner lips.

My ears soon told me which were the best places to stimulate, a small nub just above her opening seemed especially sensitive to my tongue. I concentrated on this and the folds around it as my fingers kept stroking her inside. Asuka seemed to really be losing herself in it. It was possibly the single sexiest thing I have ever experienced. She was now gasping and crying out as I went down on her. Her hands roughly grasping my hair and pulling me in as her hips bucked and ground in time with my strokes.

In fact she was getting so loud that I was seriously glad that we had no neighbours on this floor, I'm sure they would have called the police on us, and that would have been way beyond embarrassing.

After what felt like only a short amount of time Asuka's breathing and moans became hoarser and her hips seemed to be losing their rhythm. Her hands grasped at my hair, grinding my face into her as I kissed and sucked her into my mouth. Finally she seemed to reach the peak as I could feel her whole body tense and her vagina tightening strongly and convulsively against my fingers.

"Ssssssshinji…. Oh…. Gott…" She gasped as I slowed down my ministrations to a more gentle pace. Her breathing slowly returned to a steady rhythm and her hands untangled themselves from my hair. I stopped my kissing and looked up at her flushed and sweating face smiling down the length of her naked body at me from between her breasts. I grinned back at her. My mouth and chin wet from her orgasm and juices.

"Gott Shinji," She said breathlessly, "Where on Earth did you learn to do that?"

"I dunno." I replied. "I just kind of winged it and listened to how you responded. How was it?"

She sighed. "Th-that was amazing!"

My grin widened. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Asuka."

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. I looked on transfixed as her breasts rose and fell with each breath. She opened her eyes again, the sapphire blue had never seemed so bright and vivid to me as it did right then.

"Oh, I'm not finished with you yet, _Shinji-kun!_"

I looked at her in mock alarm.

"Come up here and kiss me, Baka!"

I got up on my hands and knees and crawled up the bed so that we were face to face. Leaning down I kissed her with all of the repressed and unfulfilled passion I had in my being. She returned in kind, our tongues both playfully exploring each other's mouths.

I was also very aware that the tip of my erect penis was now positioned up against the opening of her pussy. I could see by her eyes that she was just as aware of it as I was.

"I want you to… take me, Shinji. Do it, _please!_"

"A-Are you sure Asuka?"

"Y-Yes. But, be gentle! They say it can hurt the first time!"

I nodded, there was no way I was going to hurt her if I could possibly avoid it.

"Are you ready?" I said.

She nodded, smiling as she saw the worry in my eyes.

"Okay…"

I gently pushed forward into the warmth of her body. I kept my eyes on Asuka's face as my hips thrust forward. Initially there was a lot of resistance against my erection as it slowly pushed deeper into her. Asuka hissed slightly through her teeth. "S-Stop for a second…" She said. "That's it, okay. A bit more, s-slowly."

With as much patience as I could muster, and never looking away from her beautiful face, she guided me into her until my full length was engulfed in the velvet heat of her.

She opened her eyes. We stared at each other. Both sharing the same thought of the significance of what we were doing, and how nothing would ever be the same for either of us. Her arms wrapped around me and pulled me down into a fierce open mouthed kiss.

"Okay," She said. "I'm ready. Let's do this!"

Slowly, gently at first, I began moving myself inside her. She moved her hips in time with me so that I could delve deeper into her with every thrust. Her vagina was so hot and wet that her initial tightness gave way to the most amazing feeling of being completely at one with her in that most intimate and beautiful of moments.

Her hands ran up and down my back and along bare hips and buttocks as they clenched and relaxed with each forward motion. She wasn't moaning any more, but her breathing was heavy and ragged, as was mine with the exertion involved. Asuka's arms then wrapped around my back as she pulled me down into another passionate kiss. Our bodies were now pressed against each other and I could feel her erect nipples rubbing against my chest as I moved on top of her.

Slowly, but inexorably, I could feel the sensitivity and tension build up in my erection as it moved within her, I tried to make it last just a little longer, but after a few more minutes I finally came. I gripped Asuka tightly to me as I felt the climax take me and held her as the spasms of my orgasm drenched the inside of her vagina with my semen.

"Nnnnnggggggh!" I managed to say at that moment. Or something similarly articulate.

We lay there for I don't know how long afterwards. Just holding each other like castaways in a storm. The cicadas droned on relentlessly outside as we held on to one another, heedless to the World or anything except the closeness between us. Eventually, I propped myself up on my elbows and kissed Asuka tenderly on the lips. She blessed me with a smile of unimaginable sweetness.

"I love you, Asuka." I said and I kissed her again.

"You better, Shinji-kun. 'Cos after this you're never gonna be able to get rid of me! You got that?" She said, still smiling that heartbreakingly gorgeous smile.

I nodded solemnly. "As you wish." I said seriously.

"You are _so_ corny sometimes!"

"Thank you, I think."

"Baka…" She said. Though now it was with an expression of pure tenderness. She raised her hand and lightly brushed my cheek.

"Shinji-kun?"

"Yes?"

"I hate to break the mood, but it's been a _big _day!"

I couldn't disagree with her there.

"And… um… well…" She continued. "I'm, uh… kinda starving, especially after all of our uh… after we ummmm… you know…."

"Yes?" I knew what she wanted to ask, but I was enjoying myself too much to stop.

"Um, Shinji?"

"Yes, my darling Asuka?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, which I found very sexy, especially considering where we were, you know, naked in my bed with me still on top of her, I was _still_ inside her after all.

"Baka!" She said getting annoyed. "I'm hungry! Make me some dinner!... Please?"

I planted a huge kiss right on her lips.

"Of course Asuka! Why didn't you ask earlier?"

"Meh."

**End of Chapter 5**

A/N: Egad! That was tough to write! I'm interested in what you thought of it. If the general consensus is that the lemon scene sucked, then I will happily do a re-write to tone it down/remove/rewrite it, I feel that it was important to show Asuka and Shinji attaining that level of intimacy as a very important part of their relationship and emotional growth. However, I may be crap at writing Lemon scenes, I don't know, this is my first ever attempt! So let me know what you think, and hopefully no-one is too offended!

Also... if this is considered too explicit for then let me know I'll have a go at toning it down. I'm new at this so let me know!

Toodles... Donderkind.


	6. Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)

**A/N**: {So… still reading on after the Lemon Scene? Do you still respect me after we've, you know, crossed _that_ threshold? Maybe we can discuss our feelings about it over a light brunch and a coffee? I know a nice place… Am I being too needy? I hope that things won't get too awkward between us now.

Alright, I'll shut up! ^_-

So here's Chapter 6, hope you're enjoying it thus far. }

BTW: Evangelion is in no way mine. If the owners of Eva somehow find this and object to it, I'll take it down, and then hide in my room and sulk for about a month or so.

Anyways, here goes!

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity: **

**Chapter 6**

**Getting Away with It (All Messed Up**)

Life is weird.

If someone had told me that morning when I had gotten out of bed that by that night Shinji Ikari and I would have been, you know… intimate… I probably would have laughed in their faces long enough to distract them so I could kick them in the shins, knock them to the ground and break their fingers.

I tended towards the extreme end of reactions in those days. Especially where Shinji was concerned. You know the old saying: 'You always hurt the ones you love' and others like it. I think it was Shakespeare, or perhaps someone else, who said something like '_Methinks the lady doth protesteth too mucheth' _

Or something like that, perhaps with a few fewer _'eths'_. I don't know. I don't care.

Anyways, that was me back then. It took a truly seismic crumbling of my 'Ace' façade to make me wake up and smell what the Third Child actually meant to me. It's funny how what I realise now were the years of PTSD and loveless homes that had been my life until I came to Tokyo-3 had created an obnoxious and incredibly brittle shell. A shell that had begun to crack almost as soon as one Ikari. S had landed in my life.

It was almost irreparably cracked on the day we went out to the crater, especially when I saw him so still and lifeless seeming with me under the rubble. The relief I felt when he finally woke that day was not even lessened by the fact that he nearly gave me a God-damned concussion!

My anger at him when he took the blame for me in front of Misato and the Commander was I guess just the last stand of my Soryu pride. I _hated_ being treated like a little girl that needed protecting. I knew, even then, the reason he did it was because he cared about me and was trying to shield me from his Father's anger. I knew what it cost him to put himself in emotional harms ways like that.

But I almost hated him for making me feel like a helpless little girl. It made me feel guilty, and guilt is one of the most insidious and debilitating of emotions. Damn him for making me feel that way!

I suppose I should be grateful to Hikari, and even that bonehead Suzuhara, for putting it into perspective in a way. I realised why I was so pissed off was because I was angry at myself. Angry that I had let Shinji take the blame for my wrongs. Angry because the one person who treated me decently for who I was, who made me feel like maybe I was worthwhile, and not just because I piloted the Evangelion, was suffering for my actions.

Hikari hadn't just cracked my shell, she had taken to it with an axe. With that Ape Toji giving it a few fatal blows as well. After I had trudged home in the rain, and stood in the bathroom staring at the stranger in the mirror it was like that shell had been sloughed off, quite painfully mind you, and left me naked, physically, of course, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Anyways, I think that I'm truly labouring my mixed metaphors here.

I realised that there was no point being the best and greatest Pilot in the World if that World doesn't give a rat's ass if you lived or died because you were an obnoxious brat. That realisation was truly the most devastating one for me ever to have to face.

Don't judge me for finding comfort in Shinji's arms, his kisses, his bed. My life up to that point was truly one messed up pile of shit. Don't dare judge me for finding solace, comfort and perhaps, for the first time in my young life, the chance of being happy and looking outside of myself with the one person who had always treated me like I mattered for more than just an empty list of achievements!

In all truth, Shinji was, and still is I guess, the only person in the entire World whose life and experiences come even close to my own. We may have handled it in different ways, but we were like two sides of the same coin. He was the Yin to my Yang, or something like that.

Not that he wasn't still a whiny little baka. It's just now he was _MY_ whiny little baka! And as he and I lay, naked in each other's arms that night, I think that it was the first time I knew that happiness could exist. And maybe, just maybe, if I didn't try to sabotage it like I was wont to do; I might just be allowed to have a taste of it.

After Shinji had made a simple dinner of fried rice with chicken from what he had gathered from the kitchen we had returned again to his bedroom. My own larger room no longer held any appeal for me. We made love again, more gently, less urgently than our first time. There was no need to rush now. There was a comfort, a safety I felt in his arms that belied his generally more nervous temperament. I took the time to really enjoy the both the physicality and the deep connection with him that I felt in that act. The absolute intensity as I felt him move inside me was just indescribable. Then, just as I was pushed beyond the point of no return and was overwhelmed by the virtual tsunami of my own orgasm, I felt him come inside me for the second time that day. It was all truly beyond my most fevered teenaged imaginings. Maybe _I_ was the perverted one?

Think what you like. Call me a slut, call me whatever you want. I still don't care.

Afterwards we just lay there. I was on my side with Shinji nestled behind me under the covers. Our nude bodies sharing the warmth of the afterglow. His arm draped over my bare side and our fingers interlocked in front of me as we drank in the silence and the blissful _closeness_ we shared.

I'm not sure when I drifted into the world of sleep, but no dreams or nightmares marred my slumber that night.

* * *

><p>"Tadaima!"<p>

My eyes flew open. '_What the…?' _

Shinji's bedroom was bathed in the early morning light streaming in through the window. We were still lying in the _'spoons' _position and very much still naked underneath the light cotton sheet. Shinji wasn't yet awake, although it seems a certain part of him was very much up and ready to party on without him! I probably would have been happy to oblige, but for one thing…. And that thing was: _'Tadaima!'_

Ohhhhhhh….. Fuck…. Misato!

"Shinji... Shinji!" I whispered frantically at my somnolent bedmate.

"Wh-wha…?" Shinji muttered groggily. His eyes widened momentarily when he saw me in his bed, before a coy grin spread across his features. Any other time I would have found it endearing. However, something far more alarming was happening that the poor fool was completely unaware of.

"Misato's home!" I whispered, filling him in on our current emergency.

A second's pause. "Mi-Misato?"

I nodded, taking a second to give him a quick kiss on the lips before I sprang out of his bed and looked around me for somewhere to hide. Damn Shinji's tiny room with its lack of closets to hide in! I could hear Misato's footsteps coming down the hallway towards the apartment's bedrooms.

Shinji also leapt from his bed, still at half-mast might I add, _ecchi_, and also looked around him in panic.

"Well?" I whispered urgently. " Do something!" I could just picture the fallout if Misato suddenly opened the door to find Shinji and I arguing naked about where the best hiding spots in his room were!

"U-Under the desk!" He whispered back, pointing to the foot-well of his small student's desk in the corner of the room.

I shot him a look that would have curdled fresh milk as I curled myself into a ball, wedging into the tiny area under his desk. He quickly placed his chair in front of the desk and hung my red towel over it to conceal me slightly more effectively.

This sucked, big time. I could only hope that Misato would just collapse straight into bed after pulling another all-nighter back at NERV. Shinji scuttled back into his bed and pulled the covers well over his body. Just in time too, might I add.

There was a gentle knock at the door. "Shinji?" Misato called from the other side. _Dammit!_

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Can I come in?"

"I-I'm trying to sleep Misato…"

The door slid open. I could just see a small crack of light from the hall and Misato's bare feet from my lowly vantage point.

"Shinji… " Misato said again, more gently. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

There was a lengthy pause. "Yeah."

Gott… I was _really_ uncomfortable. Whatever it she wanted, I hoped she would be quick about it!

"I wanted to tell you, tell you that you did a very noble thing the other day."

"What do you mean?"

"For Asuka… For me. Taking the blame for the snafu during the battle. I know what it means for you to face your Father like that. It was… very brave."

"No, Misato." He replied. "I-I'm not brave… I just couldn't bear to see either of you suffer for me. Not when I could d-do something about it."

"No, that _is _brave! A-and I want you to know how much I know it cost you. I appreciate it. And I-I know Asuka does too."

"Misato… " Shinji said softly. I tensed in my hiding spot. _Don't say anything stupid_!

"No, Shinji, let me finish. I know that right now, Asuka seems mad with you. You might even think she hates you?" She paused as if to give him a chance to answer, but he said nothing. Smart boy. Despite my position, despite being stark naked and scrunched into a tiny space beneath an Ikea Clearance Centre student's desk, I leaned my head slightly forward as if to hear better.

Misato continued. "She's a complicated girl… She doesn't like to feel beholden to anyone."

Still he didn't answer her.

"She likes to talk big," My ears were just about out on stalks now. "But it's just because she's had a… a tough life, she needs to prove herself. She doesn't mean all of the hurtful things she says."

I had a good mind to come leaping out from where I was hiding and give her a piece of my mind for discussing me like I wasn't even there. Even though, as far as she knew, I wasn't. That would have showed her! But even I didn't feel I could make a strong argument while standing nude in my housemate's bedroom. I stayed hidden and seethed silently.

"I know that Misato."

"She, cares about you very much, Shinji." I heard him give a short laugh. Misato misinterpreted it. "It's true! It might not seem like it right now, but she knows what it cost you to do what you did. It's just difficult for her to show it. It's like she equates kindness with weakness."

_Bah!_

"But she's really a good person. I know with time she'll let you see that side of her. When she does, I think the two if you will become good friends."

"I hope so, Misato." He replied. I smiled to myself in my hiding place.

"Me too, Shinji-kun. Nothing would make me happier! Now, get some more sleep! Just because you don't have to go to school doesn't mean you can sleep in all day though!"

"Yes, Misato."

I could see her feet move as she turned to leave.

"Misato…" He called after her. Her feet stopped.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome, Shinji-kun! Now get some sleep! I'm gonna hit the shower and then get some much needed sleep myself. And one more thing…" She said. I could now see that her feet walking over towards the desk where I was hiding.

"Yes?" He said nervously. My heart leapt into my throat. Had she discovered me?

"Don't let Asuka find out you've been using one of her favourite Red Towels! She might be a kind girl underneath it all, but she'd wring your neck if she found out that you had one of them in your room!"

"Y-Yes Misato." My relief was reflected in his voice. Thankfully her feet once again moved away from my vantage point.

Finally the door closed. I stayed put until I heard the bathroom door shut and the shower begin to flow.

I pushed the chair out of the way and clambered out from under the desk, looking down at Shinji with a raised eyebrow.

"Thanks for defending me, baka!" I said, grabbing the towel off the chair and wrapping it around my body.

He turned several shades of red and stuttered his response. "B-But I-If I'd tried to defend you s-she would have been suspicious! I-I thought the less I said the b-better!"

He had a point, but I was still a bit annoyed at being portrayed as some kind of ogre, I was a_ good_ person! But I was also enjoying seeing him squirm just a little too much to stop right then. I stepped up to him until our faces were almost touching. "You know what, Shinji?" I said, narrowing my eyes.

"What?" He answered nervously.

I leaned forward just a little and planted a big wet kiss on his lips. "Fooled ya! You did okay there Shinji-kun! She doesn't suspect a thing! Let's keep it that way!"

He was relieved, though he did look a little disappointed that we had to hide it from her.

"Just think about it. If she, or anyone at NERV found out we were sleeping together," I paused there for a moment and we both just looked at each other. '_Sleeping together' _Wow. It sounded so… so adult... I quickly moved on. "If they found out, how quick do you think that they'd separate us and not let us see each other again?" I saw the recognition of what I was saying in his eyes. "That's right. So, for now, we have to keep this under wraps. Okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

"Doesn't that make it more exciting?"

"I guess so."

"Bah! Where's your sense of adventure, Third Child?" He just smiled. The loveable dork.

"Anyways," I said. "I'd better get to my room before Misato comes out of the shower! And put some clothes on for God's sake!"

He blushed adorably as I quickly exited the room.

"I love you Asuka!" He called after me.

I stuck my head back around his door. "You better!"

* * *

><p>"Shit…. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit…. Fuck!"<p>

I think I may have mentioned earlier that I've always found profanity a great comfort in difficult times. How else was I supposed to respond when Misato had insisted, in fact she had ordered me, as a superior officer addressing a subordinate, to go to school that day?

After the uncomfortable, but weirdly thrilling, interlude hiding under the desk when Misato had nearly caught us. I had scurried back to my room, thrown on a long T-shirt nightie and leapt into bed, my heart still pounding.

Misato had finished her shower surprisingly quickly that morning, and before too long she was pounding on my bedroom door.

"Time to get up, Asuka! You'll be late for school!"

"Uhhh… "I pretended to groan groggily. "Why should I?" The door slid open. My guardian stood there in her purple dressing gown, hands on her hips, her hair wrapped in a towel-turban.

"You know why Asuka!" she interrupted as I started to protest. "No buts or ifs! Shinji's forbidden from school for the moment, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let both of you mope around the place giving each other dirty looks!"

"But Misato… "

"Don't make this any harder than it has to be! I've had a long night at NERV, I haven't slept in over twenty six hours, I don't have the energy for this. I am saying this as your commanding officer, get up and go to school, NOW!"

Grumbling to myself I got out of bed and grabbed my stuff for the shower. Not even looking at Misato I brushed passed her and headed for the still steaming bathroom and slammed the door shut.

After my shower I inhaled a granola bar in place of breakfast and stomped out of the apartment. My dark mood lifted quickly while I walked to school as the events of last night played back in my mind. My head was still buzzing from the sheer brain-frying intensity of the last 12-24 hours or so. I was still on a fuzzy high from all of the endorphins and sheer freedom I guess you would call it, that I had felt last night with Shinji. It all seemed so surreal, but I knew that it was no dream. For one thing I was feeling… well… a little tender, you know… down there. Though certainly not as much as I would have thought after my first time. First _two_ times actually!

I grinned to myself. Despite my argument with Misato my mood was happier than I could ever remember it being. The day seemed brighter, the citizens of Tokyo-3 no longer looked dead eyed and dreary to me that morning. They seemed purposeful, eager for new achievement. The air felt cleaner, crisper. _Oh boy_, I thought to myself, _I've gotta get a grip before I get to school or Hikari will be all over me like Misato on a brewers van!_

Anyway, it wasn't like Shinji and I would have been able to do anything with Misato asleep in the next room. She was a surprisingly light sleeper for a workaholic booze-hound.

I rounded the corner and walked down to the gate of the school. The one advantage of running late was not having to face Hikari's questions about my departure from school yesterday, or even worse facing Suzuhara, or any of the other Freakerati of class 2-A. I stuffed my backpack into my locker and crossed hall to the classroom door and slid it open.

Inside the Sensei paused mid drone to regard me owlishly through his coke-bottle glasses as I entered.

I bowed to the old fossil. "I apologise for my lateness, Sensei. I had um… NERV business to attend to this morning."

"Very good, Miss Soryu. Take your seat."

I scurried to my seat. The old man continued his lecture as I sat and got my laptop out from under my desk. From beside me Hikari gave me a concerned smile. I gave her a quick smile back to try to reassure her, hoping to avoid any further inquiries.

Thankfully none were coming at that moment, so I settled in for the school day.

Oh, sweet Jesus the mind numbing boredom of that school! Every second of it dragged into an eternity. All the while Shinji was waiting back at the apartment! All of the precious time with each other that this wizened old prune was chewing up with his fucking Second Impact Drivel! I thought I would scream with the frustration of it all.

The morning session continued to crawl past with all the speed of a tree-sloth tripping on Mogadon.

* * *

><p>Lunch arrived, and my anxiety at having to lie to my best friend about what had happened yesterday was growing so that it felt like an entire army of butterflies had annexed the pit of my stomach. I needn't have worried though. Hikari, it appeared, felt responsible for the fact that I had left school seemingly upset yesterday, so she spent the lunch break prattling on about how her sister Nozomi was accepted into her junior school's band as second viola and how Hitomi from class 2-B was going out with Jun from our class's older brother and a million other trivialities of life that she thought would distract me from what she perceived as my dark mood. She truly was a good friend. Though I'm sorry to say that I zoned out for most of it. I had <em>other<em> things on my mind.

After lunch was the brief excursion into '_Lord of the Flies' _that was Phys Ed class. Today's session was girl's track and field training. Tokyo-3 Middle School was going to be competing against Odawara Academy at the end of term sports carnival, and Mr Hirota, the P.E. Teacher, took the honour of the school very seriously. He stood at the centre of the school sports field with his red megaphone and barked instructions and trite motivational sayings at the students as they puffed and shuffled their way around the track.

I was picked for the 4 x 200 metre girls' relay team tryouts. Arbitrarily I was shoved into a team of four with the asthmatic Yuko Chiba, Hikari _and_ much to my annoyance, Rei Ayanami. I really couldn't be bothered with this meaningless interschool crap anyway. Neither Rei nor myself would be allowed to travel to Odawara to compete due to NERV's standing operational orders that forbade Pilots and essential personnel from leaving the Tokyo-3 area without written permission from the Commander or Sub-Commander.

But, NERV was also keen for the Pilots to have as _'normal'_ a school life as possible. So we took part in the tryouts, pointless though they were.

After a considerable amount of indecipherable shouting through Hirota-Sensei's megaphone we were lined up for the relay tryouts. I, of course, would run the first leg, then Hikari the second and Rei the third, with Yuko running the final leg and crossing the line. In first place, hopefully.

I took my position in the starting blocks with a certain degree of indifference. But I have to admit that my natural competitive spirit got the better of me and I grinned to myself as Hirota-sensei gave the starters orders and fired his cap gun to signal the beginning of the heat.

I took off, my long legs and lean form easily outpacing the other five girls that were competing against me in this leg. It felt so good just to run, cleansing and pure just to be pushing myself as hard as I could without any real threat of consequences. I was already several lengths ahead when I rounded the bend to where Hikari was waiting for me. She started off and I slowed to match my pace to hers as I handed the baton over several metres before the line.

Hikari wasn't a bad runner, not quite up to my standard, but quite a good runner over distance. The other girls had reeled her in a little but she was still in front by a short way when she handed the baton to Rei.

Now Ayanami was a quite a revelation! Gripping the aluminium baton tightly she took off at an astonishing pace. Her pale arms and legs almost a blur as she opened up a healthy lead on the rest of the group. No expression showed on her face (_did it ever?)_ as she streaked away from the field. Before any time had passed she had rounded the bend and was handing off the baton to Yuko.

Ah, Yuko Chiba. I'm not sure if anyone has ever snatched defeat from the jaws of victory quite as convincingly as she did on that day. Rounding the final bend into the straight with still a comfortable margin over the next girl, she somehow managed to drop the baton. She claimed later that her hands were all sweaty from the tension of having to anchor the race for the Class Representative _and_ two Evangelion Pilots. Whatever. All I know is that as it hit the ground in front of her she kicked it hard with her right foot as it swung forward and it sent the baton flying straight back up at such velocity that it struck her square in the face and broke her nose.

I must admit that it did look kinda funny as she fell and cartwheeled into a dusty heap about thirty metres shy of the finish line. Not for her, obviously, but hey…. You know….

So Hikari and I sat, with Ayanami just off to the side of us, and watched with the rest of the girls in the class as Hirota-sensei barked unintelligible instructions through his loud-hailer and several of the school orderlies stretchered Yuko off the field and away to the tender mercies of the school nurse.

"Typical." I said. "We had that race in the bag and then that klutz Chiba manages to turn it into an episode of _'Destroyed in seconds'_! Sheesh!"

Hikari rolled her eyes at me. "That's hardly fair Asuka!" She chided. "Poor Yuko didn't mean to fall over like that. Anyway I thought you said that you didn't care about the race."

"I don't! It's just embarrassing to have a great lead like that and lose the race due to someone else's stupid clumsiness!"

"Never mind! " She said. "It was a good race up until that point. You and Rei both were amazing out there Asuka! You were both way faster than any of the other girls!"

"Naturally! I'm an elite Evangelion Pilot! Trained to the highest level by one of the World's top paramilitary organisations. Of course the other girls were no match for me. Even Wonder-doll over there could beat mere school girls in a stupid foot race!"

"I am not a doll." Rei said quietly from where she sat a few metres away.

"Shut up, doll!" I snarled, my anger flaring suddenly. "Don't argue with me unless you're ordered to!"

"Asuka…" Hikari said placatingly.

"I am not a Doll." She repeated.

I was livid. "I said shut up! You _are_ so a fucking doll!" I was up in Ayanami's face now. "Why, I bet that if the Commander decided he was going to destroy us all, you'd be the first in line to drink the Kool-Aid!"

She just stared back at me with those freaky damned eyes. I tried to stare her down. Intimidate her. Show her where she stood in the scheme of things. Also, I knew, she and Shinji had some history. I didn't know what. But I was damned if I was going to let her steal away my happiness when I had only just found it. She needed to know her place.

She just stared back at me. The seconds passed. Hikari tried to move to come between us.

"Come on, Asuka. Just let it go. Let's just enjoy the sunshine out here while we can!"

"Fine!" I said backing off a little. "No point wasting my breath on you anyway!"

I continued staring at her. Daring her to speak. Finally, and devastatingly, she did.

"You smell like Ikari."

_What?_ "What was that Rei?" Hikari asked.

"I was merely stating that Pilot Soryu smells like Pilot Ikari. It seems unusual to me."

_Ach… Mein Gott! _I felt my face growing hotter and hotter.

"Okay… "Hikari said. "That's a little weird, Rei. What do you mean by saying that Asuka smells like… "

She paused mid-sentence as she looked over at me. I'm sure that my face was beginning to glow with the amount of heat I could feel coming from it. I wanted to scream at Ayanami to shut up, I wanted to deny… Something…. I wanted to do something to divert her attention from my guilty blush, but I was stuck dumb by sheer embarrassment. Embarrassment and a strange sense of guilt that I still can't fully explain. I just hung my head and avoided her questioning gaze.

"Asuka…?" Hikari repeated. "What's going on?"

"N-Nothing!" I blushed even more.

"Then why does Ayanami say that you smell like Shinji? And, why are you blushing Asuka?"

"I-I'm not blushing!" I exclaimed fervently. "A-As if I would do anything with th-that dork anyway!" Even as I said it I felt a huge surge of guilt at calling him that. I knew that I would _never_ be able to think of Shinji that way again.

"But Asuka, no-one even suggested that you've done _anything_ with… "She paused for a moment and her eyes grew wide. "Oh my God!"

"What?" I said, a sick feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.

"You did it, didn't you?" She said excitedly.

"D-Did it?" _Holy Roller-Skating Vishnu!_ _Was it that obvious?_ Was I unknowingly wearing a neon sign proclaiming my lost virginity to the greater Tokyo-3 metropolitan area?

"You confessed to Shinji, didn't you?" She almost squealed. "You told him how you felt! Oh My God! Asuka, that's so wonderful!" Hikari's genuinely joyful face beamed upon me as she swooped down and engulfed my in an enthusiastic embrace.

I guess relief outweighed most of the other emotions that swamped me at that moment. Nobody suspected that Shinji and I had slept together, and it was kind of a relief to have someone to confide in. No one would be better than Hikari on that count.

As she finally released me from her clutches I simply nodded silently to her question. She squeed in delight. I could see the romantic soft-filtered images of _'Eva Pilots in Love' _already playing in her head.

"So, "She said. "Tell me _everything! _Have you had your first kiss yet?"

I wished so dearly for my tell-tale blush to go away. "Y-Yes."

She gasped. "Oh my god Asuka! That's so soon! Aren't you worried about going too fast?" Before I could answer she continued. "So, how was it? Did you hold hands afterwards? Did you make him brush his teeth? How many times did you kiss? Did he tell you he loved you? Does he… "

"Enough!" I cried finally after her barrage of questions showed no sign of ceasing. "To answer your question, it was really…nice. But we're taking it slowly." I lied. "So _that _means I don'twant this blabbed all over the schoolyard, okay?"

Hikari, to her credit, seemed almost hurt. "Of course, Asuka. I won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

"Not even Suzuhara?"

"I swear!" She said with a slight blush. _I knew she had a thing for that moronic jock!_

"You better! Or, so help me I'll…" I was interrupted by the bell for the end of the period. My gratitude to that bell was beyond measure.

Hikari immediately stood up, her Class Representative training again coming to the fore.

"Come on everyone. Get changed and back to class! You have five minutes!" she yelled to the field in general. "We'll talk more about this later!" She said in an aside to me as she headed off to marshal the more recalcitrant students.

I turned from her and went to stand up. I stopped when I met the vivid red eyes of the First Child, who was just staring at me inscrutably.

"Well, Wondergirl?" I said defensively. I had forgotten that she was there, and had, _of course_, heard everything. _Dammit!_ "Jealous that I've stolen your Shinji away from you? You better not blab any of this to anyone at NERV, do you hear me? Or I'll do my best to make your life a living Hell!"

"There is no need to threaten me Pilot Soryu. Nothing you could do would make my life any worse than it already is."

"What does that mean?"

"Do not worry. No one shall hear about your and Pilot Ikari's coupling through me."

"Um… Good! They'd better not!" I said, a little nonplussed. _Coupling?_

"I hope that he finds happiness with you as his mate. It would do him good." With those enigmatic statements she gracefully rose to her feet and walked off without a backward glance.

'_Well,'_ I thought as I headed off to the girls change rooms, _'I dodged a bullet there, kind of…' _Sure Hikari _and_ Rei knew, but I thought that I had contained the damage as much as possible. I was sure that Shinji would agree with me.

I hoped.

**END CHAPTER 6**

*Is "Placatingly" actually a word? It kinda feels like it should be, but my spell check didn't care for it one bit. Anyways, I left it in 'cos it felt right. You know how it is…

Thought so.

Anyways…

Onward to the next chapter!

**P/S.** Please review and let me know what you think! You know that every time you leave a review, an Angel gets its Wings!


	7. Ich und Du

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 7**

**Ich und Du**

Another day, another weird sync test. Welcome to NERV. You are here. - .

At least it was nice to be out of the apartment after over two weeks of confinement. The days had passed slowly. Maddeningly slowly. The nights though, had been nothing short of magical. That first fortnight of Asuka's and my relationship had brought me such happiness as I would never have believed possible. It was like a physical void at the centre of my being was being filled. Yes, I _know_ that I'm prone to sappy hyperbole, but that is the only way that I can describe how I felt. You have to remember where I was at, emotionally, at the very start of all of this.

To paraphrase one of those weighty Russian authors the old Sensei seemed to love even more than his interminable Second Impact reminiscences: My life before this had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.

And Asuka. I'm sure that she felt something similar. I certainly could tell that she was happier. Or at least I felt that she _seemed_ happier. It's not like she suddenly turned into Maria von Trapp or anything. Let's not get crazy here… It's just that… well… even though the barbs were still there and in front of Misato she still spoke to me as she always had… I could feel the warmth behind the façade.

The old brash abusive Asuka Langley Soryu was just what was required to keep the outside World from becoming suspicious. The real Asuka, well only _I_ got to see that. And she was beautiful beyond imagining.

I did feel bad for Misato having to work nights for all of that time, but I will admit that I _was _grateful for it. It gave the two of us the freedom that we needed. After dinner, most nights, we would study together, often holding hands across the kitchen table as we read. I would help Asuka with her Kanji and written Japanese and she would help me with physics and chemistry. I kind of feel that I got the better of the deal there.

Later in the evenings we would retire to my bedroom. Strangely it was never hers. And there we would make love. Feeling the depth of our bond growing each time a little stronger. I relished the warmth and intensity of the feeling of being inside her. The small moans she made as we moved together and the way she clutched at my shoulders when she came. Then we would lie there, still in each other's arms as our breathing and heart rates slowly came back to normal. That was the magical time. The Afterglow, I've heard it called. That feeling of oneness with another person.

Often we would talk. Sometimes about nothing in particular. Sometimes in painful depth. Yet, it felt good, cathartic. I told her about my Father and life with my Teacher. She told me about life in Germany, her time at University and one night, in a quavering voice, she told me about her Mother.

I was horrified. Truly horrified. I felt such a fool for the seemingly indulgent self-pitying I had felt for myself. I had some horrible things in my past, but a Mothers rejection of her only daughter and then attempting a Murder-Suicide, and an indifferent father who abandoned you for another woman was just breathtakingly awful to me.

That night Asuka had just held me and cried quietly into my chest. All I could do was hold her and stroke her hair. I didn't say anything. What could I say to her that would make her feel better after that? Sometimes it's just better to say nothing.

Not every night was a joint therapy-catharsis session though. I certainly don't want to make it sound that way. I just want to show how far we had progressed in that short time. Though it didn't seem that short to us. The constant threat of Imminent Pointy Death can do strange things to your perspective.

So there we were. After two weeks confined to the Apartment I had finally been allowed out to take part in Dr Akagi's latest series of Synchronisation Tests.

Thus far we had been stripped, soaked, scrubbed, water-jet blasted, sandblasted, turbo blasted, vacuum dried and stuck naked in a tiny booth at one end of a long, ultra clean corridor. The small opaque door in front of me would have covered from just above my knees to just below my shoulders.

I couldn't see the other two, but I knew that they were there. Or at least I _knew_ Asuka was there.

"So, here we are, stripped naked and run through the wash cycle seventeen times!" She said with considerable impatience in her voice. "Why do we need to go through this crap anyway? And, dare I ask, _why_ do we have to be _naked_?"

"We need to understand all of the variables that can affect synchronisation Asuka." Came Dr Akagi's voice over the P.A. "This test is to see what effect removing the interface of the plug suit will have on both Pilot sync ratios and performance of the Evangelions under a variety of conditions."

"Sure. It just _seems_ to me that an inordinate amount of NERV's _'testing' _requires me being naked and/or probed in some highly invasive and deeply personal way!"

"All of NERV's test procedures and protocols meet with the United Nations Standard as specified in Article J-237 of the NERV Charter, 2013 Revision." Dr Akagi said in a tired voice.

"That's _not_ verycomforting." Asuka said sourly. "You say that every time I question any of the weird stuff that goes on around here!"

"So," The Doctor continued over the speaker in a more clipped tone, choosing to ignore Asuka's provocations. "If you would please continue down the hallway to the airlock door at the far end, we can finally get on with this test."

"What!" Asuka screeched. "You want me to walk, totally naked, all the way down this corridor? With El Pervo Shinji ogling my perfect body all the way? Not to mention the rest of you on that closed circuit camera on the wall? No way! I won't do it!"

"Very well," Ritsuko sounded at the end of her patience. "The Audio/Visual feed from this section will be shut down for the next five minutes. You have that time to sort out amongst yourselves how you get from where you are to the other side of that Airlock. After that, we do it the hard way."

"Uh…" I said. "What's the hard way?"

"I won't tell you." Dr Akagi answered. "But rest assured, I would enjoy it a lot more than you would."

The red light on the CCTV camera on the wall blinked twice and faded to black.

"That woman is truly some kind of weirdo sadist." Asuka griped.

The sound of my sigh was almost lost in the soft _'psssht'_ of one of the cubicle doors opening.

"Hey, Shinji-kun! Whatchya thinkin?" Asuka said, her grinning face suddenly appearing over the doorway in front of my cubicle.

"Waaaaaah!" I yelped in shock.

"Awww…" She pouted cutely. "I thought my little Shinji-kun would be happier to see his beloved than that!"

"_But Asuka!"_ I said as softly as I could. _"Rei is here too remember! I thought that we were trying to keep this a secret!"_

"There is no need to be concerned." Rei's voice came across from the cubicle where she stood. "Both Class Representative Horaki and I have been made fully aware of the fact that you and Pilot Soryu are coupled."

"What?" I exclaimed, dumbfounded. "Rei _and _Hikari know about us?"

"Welllll… Kind of."

"Kind of?"

"Yeah. It was all Ayanami's fault! Anyway, Hikari just thinks that we're holding hands and kissing occasionally. Wondergirl here," She said with a jerk of her head in the direction of the next cubicle. "Just seems to have assumed that we've gone all the way!"

"B-But…" I stammered.

"It is natural, is it not, "Rei's disembodied voice echoed strangely in the empty space of the corridor. "When someone cares for another, to wish to perform the mating act with that person? Or with a surrogate."

"What?" Both Asuka and I exclaimed in unison.

"Surrogate?" Asuka said. "What the Hell do you mean by that, Rei?"

There was silence for a moment before Rei finally answered, her voice even softer than usual. "It is not important."

"You're weird, Wondergirl!" Asuka said dismissively. As for me, I was troubled by Rei's words. But this was not the time to enquire further of the mysterious First Child.

There was a soft _'psssht'_ and suddenly Asuka was joined at my cubicle door by the blue hair and red eyes of Rei Ayanami.

"Waaaaaah!" Both Asuka and I exclaimed as I cowered in my cubicle, vainly trying to cover myself.

"Hey, Wondergirl!" Asuka said angrily. "Stop ogling my Shinji!"

"Asuka…" I tried to interject.

"And you!" She swung around to me. "Get your eyes off Wondergirl, you pervert!"

"There is no need to concern yourself, Pilot Soryu. This is not the first time Pilot Ikari has seen me in a state of undress."

"Wha…" Asuka stared slack-jawed at Rei for a moment before turning back to me. Lord how I wished for the cold metal floor of that cubicle to swallow me whole then and there.

"A-Asuka… "I stammered. "I-It's not what you think… It w-was before y-you c-came here… Th-there w-was an accident with the c-card. I-I…"

Asuka turned away from my squirming and looked pointedly at Rei.

"Pilot Ikari speaks the truth. I don't believe that it was his intention to walk into my apartment while I was showering that day. I am also sure that his prolonged clasping of my breast when he fell on top of me was purely incidental. Though… " She said, with an almost strange look in her eye. "It was not unpleasant."

"_Shinji…_ " Asuka growled dangerously.

"Come, "Rei interrupted. "We must proceed through the air-lock before Dr Akagi grows impatient." With that she turned and walked down the long corridor to the air-lock door. Her pale body appearing almost to glow under the harsh fluorescent lighting.

'_Psssht'_ Asuka pressed the release for my cubicle door.

_SLAP!_

My cheek stung with the force of Asuka's hand as it struck my cheek. Then the aforementioned hand clasped my own and dragged me out of the cubicle and down the corridor after Rei.

"We will _talk _about this later, Third Child!" She ground out through clenched teeth. She pushed me roughly through the airlock before her. I sealed it shut and stood in the tiny chamber while the light above the other door shone red. Suddenly there was a whoosh and my ears popped with the pressure change. Now the light shone green and I heard a metallic click as the door lock on that side disengaged.

I opened the door and stepped through and into a curtained off area which led me straight to a small set of steps that led up to my designated test plug. I climbed in and settled awkwardly into the control centre. It felt a little violating somehow to feel my bare flesh sinking into the memory foam of the seat. I shook myself to rid myself of such thoughts.

I had a strange, but now familiar sensation as I knew that the plug was being hoisted from where I had entered it to its position inside the Simulation Body. I tried to get as comfortable as I could in this strange situation. Asuka would be just settling into her plug now too. I smiled to myself as I imagined her sitting nude at the controls of the sim-plug. It was a pleasant diversion from my current predicament, and I knew it would be a long sync-test. I thought that I might as well make the most of it.

Also, I needed to figure out a way to stop her being so pissed at me.

LCL flooded the test plug, feeling strangely oily against my skin.

The "SOUND ONLY" window opened up in front of me.

"Shinji." Dr Akagi's voice came over the com channel. "We'll be monitoring your vital signs and sync ratio for the next four hours. Just relax and try to clear your mind."

"Yes Ritsuko." I answered with a sigh that sent a couple of stray bubbles up into the LCL around me. I closed my eyes and leaned back into the seat.

* * *

><p><strong>Several long and boring hours later…<strong>

"Well, that sucked!"

I looked up from where I was leaning on the rail of the NERV gunboat that had retrieved the sim-plugs from the Geofront Lake. I had been standing there watching as the crew went about securing the plugs onto the carrier of the mobile crane. This then transferred them onto the large flatbed truck that had pulled up at the small wharf that serviced the flotilla of NERV vessels which patrolled that body of water.

"I-I think we got out of it quite lightly." I ventured.

"Hmph… You would." Asuka answered. Somehow she managed to make the baggy grey coveralls that they had given us after we had been rescued look… well pretty hot actually. My own were uncomfortable and scratchy and didn't quite give me enough room in the erm… gentlemen's area as could have been hoped for. But on Asuka, they looked good. Really good.

I could tell that she was still mad at me. I guess that I couldn't blame her. Rei's little revelation of our past encounter, for want of a better word, had made things a little awkward between us.

"It's just inelegant, is all." Asuka said suddenly. I gave her a questioning look and waited for her to continue. Finally she did. "The Evangelions are the proper way to defeat the Angels. Humanity's greatest creation piloted by the chosen elite in a duel to the death. Not by a glorified systems analyst in binary code! It's just not how things should be done."

"But, Dr Akagi managed to defeat the Angel without any damage being done to the Magi or Central Dogma and what's more, no-one was hurt. Isn't that what really matters?" I said.

"That philosophy might appeal to you and your fuck-buddy Ayanami," She said with real bitterness in her voice as she gestured contemptuously over to where Rei stood by the bow of the ship. "But I will never believe that a faceless drone in some pseudo-military bunker shall ever be a match for a true warrior with a fierce fighting spirit. To think otherwise is to deny our humanity!"

I sighed. That's what this was really all about.

"A-Asuka… "She turned to face me. Her eyes shining bright blue and her mouth set in a thin line.

"What?"

"I know that you're pissed off because of what Rei said back there, and I-I don't blame you. But I swear… it was an accident! I slipped and fell and it all went horribly wrong! I would never… "

"You just don't get it, do you baka-Shinji?" She said, her voice hard and her expression unchanging. "I'm _pissed off_ with you because you didn't tell me, you idiot! Haven't we shared enough together that you can finally trust me? If you keep something like this from me, only to have fucking _Wondergirl _do the big reveal, how do I know that you… "She leaned on the rail and hung her head, her hair hiding her pretty face. "How do you think it makes me feel that you don't trust me enough to tell me this stuff?"

I put my arm around her, despite her words, despite our being out in the open like we were, she didn't try to pull away or shrug me off.

"I'm sorry Asuka." I felt her shoulders tense at my words. "I-I didn't think it was something that you would want to know! I never wanted to hurt you, I promise! Being with you this past few weeks, I hadn't even given it a thought, I swear! _Please_ Asuka? Please find it in your heart to forgive a lowly baka for being so stupid!"

She turned to face me, her eyes shining with tears. She slid my arm off from around her shoulder and held my hand tightly in both of hers. "Okay," She sniffed, and my heart soared. "No more secrets?"

"I swear Asuka, no more secrets." She smiled at me the most beautiful and pure smile.

"Good! I forgive you for being a baka. If I didn't I never would have slept with you in the first place!" She said, trying to lighten the mood. "Just try to imagine how I felt, Shinji! What if you found out from someone else that I had , I dunno, made out with Toji or something…? …ack…." Suddenly she let go of my hand and doubled over.

"Asuka? Are you okay?" I said concerned.

She straightened up again, with a remorseful grimace on her face. "Bleargh… "She said queasily. "I made myself do a little vom in my mouth just thinking about it!"

I stared at her, dumbfounded, for a couple of seconds before it sunk in. Then I began to laugh. She looked at me in annoyance for a moment, but I just couldn't stop myself. It may have been the release of tension, or the look on her face, but I just found myself laughing uncontrollably. Asuka too, was unable to keep her pissed off expression for very long and she too began to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it all.

Now there were tears running down her pale cheeks, and mine too. But now they were true and unfettered tears of pure joy and relief. It felt good, healthy even to have such a release after the tension between us and the uncertainty during the Cyber-Angel attack.

Finally, naturally, our laughter began to subside. Slowing down until a comfortable silence settled between us. She took my hand in hers again and looked straight at me, her eyes still shining and bright from the tears, but also with something else.

"You _will_ make this up to me_, Tonight_, Baka-Shinji." She said in a low sultry voice.

I gulped in mock terror and nodded. She favoured me again with that beautiful smile that she seemed to have only for me.

"I love you, Asuka."

"You better!" She replied, giving my hand a tight squeeze.

We stood there like that for quite some time, until finally Misato turned up in a black SUV with a red NERV symbol on the side. She waved at us as she got out of the driver's side door.

"Come on Shinji." Asuka said, giving my hand one last squeeze before letting go and waving back to Misato. "Let's go."

Misato drove Asuka and I home after the short de-brief session. We had not been involved in the battle for once, so very little was required of us after we had returned to central dogma. So the two of us were sent home. Rei, it seemed, was required for more 'tests' so she stayed behind at NERV. I showered quickly in the locker rooms. Eagerly looking forward to walking back to the apartment with Asuka. No dice. The daylight was beginning to fade outside the Geofront, so Misato was insisting that she drive us home.

"Come on, I haven't seen much of you guys lately! Let me at least drive you home!" She said.

Reluctantly we agreed. Tokyo-3 was one of the safest cities in the World. There was no danger in Asuka and I walking home in the dark. In fact we both felt safer walking home in the dark than we did driving with Misato! But our guardian wouldn't take no for an answer, so we dutifully piled into the ancient blue Alpine A310, Asuka on the front and me in the back. We were treated to a truly stomach turning trip into terror and back to our residence.

"You two seemed very cosy on that boat this afternoon Shinji!" Misato said, turning her head back to wink at me, completely taking her eyes off the road in the process.

"Will you watch where you're driving, for fuck's sake Misato!" Asuka screeched as out guardian miraculously missed sideswiping a parked Mercedes by what seemed like nanometres.

"Yeah yeah, calm down Asuka!" she said nonchalantly. Spurring the poor car up to 85 kilometres an hour in a 50 zone. "Where I come from, ladies don't use that kind of language!"

"Yeah, well, the people where you come from can kiss my ass!" Asuka replied.

Misato pursed her lips for a second at this, before moving on. "So, you guys got any _big _announcements for me?"

"W-Wha-What d-do you m-mean… "I stammered from the back.

"You two were standing pretty close at that rail when I turned up. Do I smell a budding romance in the air?"

"The only thing _budding_ in the air that I can smell is what you're smoking if you think that I would _ever_ touch perverted Shinji here with a barge-pole."

I knew she didn't mean it, I knew it. But it still stung a little.

"Hmph! You're no fun!" Misato pouted.

* * *

><p>We reached the apartment in short order and I quickly moved into the kitchen to prepare dinner for the three of us. Misato grabbed two cans of beer from the fridge and plonked herself down at the kitchen table. Without a word she cracked the first one open and chugged it down in one gulp, slamming the empty can down on the table emphatically.<p>

"Yeeeeeeeeaaaah!" She screamed ecstatically. "That's what I'm talking about!"

"What?" I said, turning from the stove top.

"Huh?" Misato said opening the second Yebisu.

"Just ignore her Shinji. The beer will do the talking for both of them from now on."

"Don't be mean!" Misato said, taking a more measured sip out of the can.

"Whatever… Anyway, shouldn't you be at work?" Asuka said. "There _was_ an Angel attack today after all. Or is it now NERV SOP for its Operational Director to get blind drunk after any critical incidents?"

"Nope." Misato replied with a smile. "But Ritsuko needs to do a thorough diagnostic scan on the MAGI before we can even begin to do a Deconstruct, Determine and Debrief on this one. So I get the night off! Isn't that nice?"

"Wonderful…" Asuka said sarcastically. She looked at me from over Misato's head and rolled her eyes and grimaced. I could pretty much read her thoughts.

_We sleep alone tonight._

Bummer.

I served up the stir fry into the bowls and placed them on the table.

"Oooh! Yummy!" Misato said tucking into her bowl immediately. This was just as well. If she had seen the disappointment etched on both of our faces things could have got awkward.

_Asuka visited me that night. I couldn't sleep anyway. My bed felt so wrong with just me in it. I had lain there for what felt like hours and still no rest would come to me. Then, the door slid open and there she stood, in her light cotton nightie._

_She tip-toed over to my bed – Our Bed – and slid in under the covers. Silently we embraced and kissed urgently, pressing our lips and bodies together in our need. _

"_I can't do this!" She breathed._

"_It's just for one night! Probably…" I answered. "She said herself that once Ritsuko finishes her diagnostics she'll be busy with the fallout from the Angel! Tomorrow night we can be together again!"_

"_But what about after that? What happens when she is back to being home every night? I… I can't take more nights like this, Shinji! I can't be alone again!"_

_I could see the moisture glimmering in her eyes in the moonlight from the window. I kissed her again, gently on the forehead._

"_We'll find a way, Asuka. I promise! Didn't I say that we would always be together? Didn't I say that I would never leave you?"_

_She nodded silently._

"_Then trust me. I won't let anything come between us."_

_She clutched to me tightly._

"_I love you Asuka."_

"_You better!"_

**End Chapter 7**


	8. Like Some Watcher Of The Skies

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 8**

**Like Some Watcher of the Skies**

"Come on, Asuka! Where's the harm in letting me? Just this once?"

"Absolutely not!"

"You're so mean! It's not like I'm going to do anything weird! I just… "

"No, Hikari!" I said in exasperation. "For pity's sake, you're like a dog with a bone! I can't let you! It's… complicated."

The pig-tailed girl pouted at me. "Meanie. You just don't want anyone to take his attention away from you. Why not let me come and see him and you together? I bet it would be so _adorable!_"

I sighed. If Hikari wasn't such a good friend, I would have been getting _really_ annoyed with her by now. Instead of just being mildly annoyed, like I currently was. She had been pestering to let her me to come and visit the apartment for days now. She said it was her duty as Class Representative to ensure the wellbeing of all of the students in her care. I didn't buy it. Not for one second.

Since that day on the sports field I had seen Hikari looking at me with an almost unbearable expression of gooey-eyed happiness. I was obvious to me that the whole _'Eva Pilots in Lurve'_ romantic bullshit had been playing on a virtually continuous loop in her sentimental brain ever since. And today, as we sat and ate our lunches together on that Friday in the otherwise unoccupied quadrangle just outside of the school library, she was really starting to ramp up the pressure.

"Why won't you let me come and visit you Asuka?" She asked again plaintively. "Kodama says it's because you're jealous and worried that I'll try and steal Shinji away from you." She blushed a little. "Kodama also says that it's more likely because you're too busy _'Riding his Salami Stallion' _as she put it, to want to spend time with your best friend, but I told her that you're not that kind of girl. Not like _she_ is."

I would have blushed at her being so close to the truth, but I'm sure that her other revelation made the colour drain from my face.

"Wait a minute… _You told Kodama?_"

Suddenly Hikari seemed fascinated by her black school shoes and couldn't bring herself to meet my eyes. "Well… er… yes."

"_Hikari!_"

"Well… it's just… I couldn't tell anyone else… a-and you're not around to talk to very much lately…. She's my oldest sister… She knew something was bugging me…" Suddenly she clutched at my arm. "Please don't be angry with me Asuka! I-I didn't mean to betray your trust… S-She forced me to tell her! And it's not like she knows anyone in our class! She… she made me…" She sniffled, trailing off.

I couldn't stay angry at her, not after that performance. And I knew how much she looked up to her big sister since their Mother had died. Hikari's problem was that she was just _too_ honest. All Kodama had to do was push the right buttons and Hikari's resolve would crumble and she would tell her anything.

There were times I was almost happy that I didn't have any family to manipulate me like that. _Almost…_

"Fine!" I said in mock ire. "But I have your word, as my best friend and as the Class Representative, that you have told, and you will tell, no one else about this?"

Another sniffle. Dear God, she was breaking my heart. "Y-Yes Asuka."

"Good. Now cheer up! In fact you can come around tonight if you like."

"Are you sure?" She said, her watery eyes wide.

"Absolutely." I replied. "But no putting any moves on my Shinji!"

"_Asuka!_ As if I would… "

I just laughed at her earnestness. She looked at me puzzled for a second before she caught on and started to giggle as well. It was almost impossible to feel awkward around Hikari. Her heart and her open and welcoming manner, belied by her imposing Class Rep façade, were one of the pure joys of my time in that crap-hole of a school.

She was a true friend.

* * *

><p>"Tadaima!"<p>

"Okaeri! I'm in the kitchen!"

I gestured to Hikari to be quiet as we took our shoes off in the entryway. She nodded seriously at me before letting out a small girlish giggle.

"_Hikari!_" I hissed at her admonishingly.

"Is everything okay out there, Asuka?" Shinji called out from the kitchen.

"Yep, just fine!" I replied, feeling more than a little annoyed with my best friend who was quivering with excitement at my shoulder. We made our way down the hall and got to the entryway to the kitchen. Shinji stood at the sink with his back to us, rinsing some vegetables or something like that. Something cook-like anyways.

"Erm… Shinji…" Was all that I managed to get out before a brown-haired-pig-tailed-flash crossed the distance between us and had the poor unsuspecting fool in a full blown bear hug. He had just tried to turn to face me with the colander of washed vegetables in his hands when the moment of impact occurred. He managed to save most of the contents, though several bok choy leaves and a couple of sliced carrots scattered onto the kitchen floor.

I was more than a little annoyed to see her holding my Shinji like that. Though it was more than countered by the priceless look of confusion and terror on his face as the normally composed Class Rep prattled on incontinently at him, me and the apartment in general.

"Oh Shinji, I'm so happy for you and Asuka! I knew that you two were meant to be together as soon as I first saw you doing your sync-training! Are you going to announce it at school? Are you going to tell Miss Katsuragi?" She stopped mid-flight and let go of Shinji, looking at him sternly. "Are your intentions towards Asuka completely Honourable? Oh, of course they are! You're not like those _other_ perverted boys, are you Shinji?"

"Well… I… "

"Geez Hikari! We're just going out! Give us some time before you have us picking out baby names!"

Hikari, and rather adorably, Shinji both blushed.

"Asuka!" The other girl replied. "I'm your best friend! I have a right to make sure that your best interests are taken into consideration! What if Shinji's rampaging Man-hormones get the better of him and he tries to take advantage of you? What would you do then?"

Shinji blushed even more hugely, but _I, _I'm glad to say, was far more composed.

"If Shinji tried to take advantage of me, _without my permission_, he knows what would happen!" I saw the Third Child blanch slightly at the implied threat, so I quickly winked at him to show that I wasn't serious. He swallowed loudly and nodded at me. Hikari, meanwhile, blushed even more.

"What do you mean, '_without my permission'_?" She gave a small gasp. "You don't mean… "

"I mean, mind your own damn business, Hikari!" I said a little more bluntly than I had intended. Finally the message got through.

"Sorry Asuka, sorry Shinji." She said sheepishly. "I guess that I did kinda make a fool of myself just now."

"Yep, you surely did!"

There was a moment's awkward silence.

"Well," Shinji said. "I'd better wash these vegetables again and start making dinner."

"Cool!" I replied. "Hikari and me will be in the lounge watching TV!"

"Sure. Hey Hikari?"

"Yes Shinji?"

"Would you like to um... stay for dinner?"

"Thank you Shinji! But I can't. I promised Dad that I would be home by 6:30 to help Nozomi with her French homework."

"Okay, maybe another time then?"

"Sure, I'd _love_ to try your famous cooking Shinji!" She smiled sweetly at him.

I grabbed her by the arm and led her into the lounge. Once the TV was turned on to cover our conversation I turned to her.

"What the fuck was all of that about?" I said angrily.

"What?" Said the pig-tailed girl startled.

"Don't give me _'What?' _all innocent like that Hikari! What was all of that "_I'd love to try your famous cooking"_ crap? What are you doing _flirting_ with _my _Shinji?"

She looked back at me stunned for a few moments before unexpectedly beginning to laugh.

"What?" I said annoyed. "What's so funny?"

"Teehee… Oh Asuka… it's so adorable." She said still giggling. "You're_ jealous_!"

"I… I am not!"

"Oh yes you are! That's sooo sweet! You really do love him!"

I sighed. "You really are hopeless sometimes."

She just smiled at me. The sounds and smells of frying began to fill the air of the apartment as Shinji continued preparing dinner. Hikari and I sat together on the couch for a few minutes, not even really talking. Just enjoying each other's company as good friends sometimes do. We could hear Shinji humming to himself, as he often did while cooking.

"He really is a good guy, you know that Asuka."

"Yeah, I know that."

"I know that I've embarrassed you a bit today, but I am really so happy for you guys!"

"Thanks."

Another few moments silence.

"So… where are you going for your First Date?"

"Huh?" I said, confused.

"You know, your first romantic outing as a couple? It has to be somewhere special!"

"In case you missed the last few weeks, Hikari, Shinji is under NERV house arrest. Didn't you see those armed goons standing by the apartment complex's entrance? He's not allowed out for another week and a half!"

"Oh yeah… I forgot." She remained quiet again for a few seconds. "Unless… "

"Unless?"

"Hmmm…" She looked thoughtful for a moment. She was about to continue when her cell-phone rang. She answered it.

"_Moshi Moshi! Hello Papa… Yes Papa…. I'm sure it's fine… Yes, I know Papa… Okay, I'll be there soon! Yes Papa I haven't forgotten! Yes Papa… Okay… See you soon! Love you too Papa! Bye."_

"That was my Dad!"

"I never would have guessed."

"I've gotta go! Kodama's cooking tonight and Dad's worried that she's going to overcook the rice. Papa _hates_ overcooked rice!"

"Heaven forbid that such a calamity befalls the Horaki household!" I said.

"I know." She replied, missing my sarcasm entirely as she grabbed her bag to leave. "Bye Asuka! Bye Shinji!" She called out as she whizzed past the kitchen.

"Uh… bye Hikari!" He called.

I followed her to the front door. "So?"

"Hmm?" she said, distracted as she put her shoes back on.

"What were you going to say before your Father rang?"

"Huh?"

"You said, _'Unless…'_?"

She looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh yes! I have an idea! Can I come around tomorrow morning, about 10 or so? I need to check something with Kodama before I come back."

"Sure. Tomorrow's not a school day after all. What's the plan?"

"I'll let you know when I see you in the morning!"

"Fine then, keep your secrets!"

"Only until tomorrow, I promise!" She said as she stepped through the door. "Bye!"

"Yeah… bye." And she was gone.

I went back into the kitchen and embraced Shinji from behind as he began to serve up the stir fry that he had been whipping up while Hikari and I had been talking.

"Mmmmmm… Smells good!" I said.

"Thanks." He replied. "What's going on with Hikari?"

"I'm not sure… but she's going to come around tomorrow, so I'll guess we'll see then!"

"Okay… Oh well let's eat!"

"Itadakimasu!"

I wasn't too concerned with Hikari's 'plan' for the morning. The girl was naïve and quite sheltered in her outlook. I could not have even _begun_ to imagine what she would turn up with the next day.

* * *

><p>"This is <em>so<em> embarrassing!"

"Are you kidding?"I replied. "This is fantastic!" I was enjoying this _so_ much!

"That's easy for you to say Asuka!" Shinji whined cutely at me. "You're not dressed like _this_!"

"Just shut up and drink your milkshake, baka! If you keep talking you'll give the whole game away!"

He just pouted and went back to slurping his jumbo strawberry milkshake up through his straw.

"This was such a great idea Hikari!" I said to my friend. Who was beaming benevolently at us both.

"I know!" She replied brightly. "I remembered last night that Kodama still had Mama's old wig... and some old retro dresses that would probably fit Shinji, and with one of Mama's old cardigans over the top of it all, he really does make quite a convincing girl!"

"Thanks." Shinji muttered to himself.

"You think that you've got it bad Third? This is not exactly how I pictured our first date!"

"Me neither." He said sourly.

He had not been at all keen when Hikari had turned up that morning at 10am with a duffel bag and a wicked glint in her eye. I still remember how his face turned pale as Hikari had emptied the contents of the bag onto the kitchen table. One black wig, styled into something like a bob-cut, but a little longer. It was a style that was popular with slightly older women about eight years ago or so. One periwinkle blue knee length dress, with pleats in the skirt. One cardigan, of a somewhat darker blue and a pair of black court shoes, obviously from Kodama, as they were too big for Hikari or myself.

"Oh no... " He had tried to protest. "There is no way in Hell that I am... "

So here we were then. The three of us sitting in the food court of Tokyo-3's most popular Shopping Mall. Enjoying, or trying to enjoy in Shinji's case, our milkshakes and keeping our eyes out for Section 2 Goons, or anyone that might recognise us.

So far so good.

"Couldn't you have found him something a bit more current?" I asked Hikari. "I know that you probably didn't have much to work with, but who would believe that _I _would be seen hanging out with someone who looks like a junior trainee librarian?"

Shinji stood up, spilling his milkshake all over the table. "I'm leaving!" He said tautly.

"Oh, suck it up princess!" I said to him as Hikari mopped up the mess. "Let's ditch this Milkshake stand and do some real shopping!"

With just a little more whining and some gentle persuasion from Hikari and me, we all headed into the serious end of the mall. The clothing and shoe shops! It was so much fun! Hikari and I both bought new summer dresses and I even managed to get Shinji to try a couple on as well, saying that the store managers would start to get suspicious and start asking him questions if he didn't. The look on his face was so desperate and put upon that I nearly gave up teasing him, but Hikari pushed him even harder than I did, if that was possible.

I did offer to buy him a pretty blue sun-dress that really set off his eyes beautifully, but the glare that I received told me that maybe I was starting to push him just a little bit too far!

Hikari was a genius! This 'Date' was so much fun, even Shinji was starting to enjoy himself at the end. Even if he did grumble,(_Quietly_) about having to carry all of the bags for us.

After a good four hours in the clothing precinct we finally took a break from shopping and hit a juice stand to replenish our energy.

"Are we finished yet Asuka?" Shinji asked wearily.

"Sure Shinji, I think that you've behaved yourself enough to earn the rest of the day off!" I replied magnanimously.

Hikari looked up from her juice. "If you don't mind I promised Nozomi that I'd see if the new Pokémon Taupe game was out yet, can I just have a quick look in the Game store to check if it's in?"

"Sure." I said. Shinji nodded in agreement. We were both keen to get this whole thing over with and get home.

We went down the nearest escalator and along the next floor to near where the nearest Game store was located. The usual gaggle of spotty game-dweebs were milling around the front, I paid them no mind. Suddenly Shinji grabbed my arm, hard.

"Ow!" I said in annoyance looking back at him. Then I stopped in my tracks. Shinji's face had gone pale beneath the heavy make-up we had plastered on him. His blue eyes wide in horror.

"What is it?" I said in concern.

"_Fucking Kensuke is here!"_ He whispered fiercely at me.

"What?" I said spinning around, just in time to nearly collide with that uber-dork Aida as he stood outside of the store chatting with several other bottom feeders.

"Hey, watch where you're going, Demon!" He had the _gall_ to say to me.

"Well, if it isn't the Dork Knight! What's the matter? Your Boyfriend Suzuhara left you to play all on your own today?"

"Get bent Blood-Nut!" The spectacled boy replied, though with a look of real fear in his eyes.

"Bring it, four-eyes!"

"Hey you two, cut that out!" Hikari intervened. "This is a public area. If you can't be civil then at least just ignore each other. You'll embarrass Shinji!" Hikari's eyes went wide as she realised her mistake.

"Why would Shinji be embarrassed? He's not even here." Kensuke asked.

"I-I meant... "Hikari spluttered to cover up. "I meant that it would upset him to see his friends fighting each other like this."

"Hmph. Soryu here is no friend to Shinji! She just treats him like a slave! As far as she's concerned he's garbage beneath her feet!"

"Fuck you Aida!" I said enraged.

"Hey, hey! Cut it out, both of you! Let's just try and act like civilised Human Beings here, okay? _Okay?_" Hikari said with a hint of Class Representative Authority in her voice.

"Fine. Just try not to aggravate me."

"Fine by me." Kensuke replied.

"That's better." Hikari said as an awkward silence settled over us.

"So... Erm... Who's your friend?" The Nerd-burger said finally, trying to put on some kind of pathetic 'Mr Smooth' impression for us. I could taste the bile rising in my mouth.

"No one you need to worry about, Dweeb!"

"I wasn't addressing you, Demon!"

"Guys... "Said Hikari.

"Well, if you _really_ must know," I said. "This is um... Nadia. Nadia des Wasserblaus. She's the daughter of the Scientific Director of NERV Germany. He's over here studying, you know, classified stuff, while _I_ have to play nursemaid for two weeks with_ this_ barrel of fun!" I said disparagingly.

"Asuka! Don't be mean!" Hikari said reproachfully.

"It's okay, she's so dumb she doesn't even speak any Japanese! Even though her mother came from Fukuoka! Can you believe that?" I said back with an evil grin. "We can say what we like. _Nicht ist das recht? Langweiliger Dummkopf?_"

Shinji just kept his head down and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. Neither he, nor any of the others had a clue what I had said. _"Ja..."_ He replied in a weird falsetto.

"See? She says okay!"

"Sure... " Aida said, sceptically. "But tell your friend that if she ever needs... um... someone more friendly and hospitable, then I...I'm um... happy to help her out!"

"As if NERV would ever let any of its top staff members children, even one as insignificant as this one, alone with a creep like you Aida!" I replied. I turned to Shinji/Nadia. "_Ein Pervert!"_ I said, motioning contemptuously toward the spectacled boy. Shinji didn't dare look up, _I was so enjoying this!_ "Now beat it, four eyes, before I sic Section 2 onto you for molesting their Pilots!"

The boy bowed and scurried off towards the Game store, which kinda counted it out as our next destination.

"Can we please go home now?" Shinji asked plaintively.

"Yeah. I'm all funned out for now." I said. "Hikari, let's get out of here!"

"Sure." She replied. "I can check for Nozomi's game another time! Let's go."

So we went back up the escalators, out to the bus stop. Took the bus, the monorail and then the train and then another bus to the stop nearest to our apartment. We walked to the apartment building. The elevator was out of commission again, so we had to climb eight flights of stairs and finally made it back to Misato's apartment.

Shinji's whining about having to carry all of our bags the whole way back really did start to get a bit old after a while though.

* * *

><p>Hikari had left only a short time after we arrived home from the Mall. Some guff about having to prepare dinner for some aunty or other who was a stickler for dining on time.<p>

Shinji hit the shower to try and wash off the excess make up and goo that we had prettied him up with for his foray into the Big Wide World. I sat bored on the couch flipping through the cable channels on the TV.

Bah. Nothing. Why wasn't that Shinji out of the shower yet? Didn't he realise how bored I was? And hungry? He needed to get his ass out here and start cooking me dinner!

"Hey Baka!" I called out. "Hurry up and get back out here! I'm starving!"The distant gurgling of the shower draining away was my only answer. Wasn't he finished yet? In impatience I got up from the couch and walked to the door of the bathroom. My hand poised over the door, contemplating whether to knock and disturb his shower. Hmmm... I had a better idea.

I walked back to the kitchen, up to the sink, and turned the hot tap on full blast.

I smiled an evil smile to myself as I heard the "Waaaaah!" from the apartment's bathroom followed by the sound of a muffled crash and "Ooof!"

Quickly trotting back to the bathroom door, I knocked gently on the door. "Shinji?" I asked in my sweetest, most concerned voice. "Are you okay in there?"

Over the still running shower I heard a plaintive. "Yeah."

I opened the door and was unable to stop myself from chuckling at the sight I saw before me.

"Geez, Shinji!" I said, reaching over and turning off the shower. "What are you doing lying there sticking your scrawny ass up at me like that?"

He turned over and struggled up into a sitting position. Not for the first time I had to admire how all of the physical training and combat drills had hardened his lean physique. Sure he was still kinda skinny, but there wasn't an ounce of excess fat on him. _Hmmm... Control yourself Soryu._

He didn't bother trying to cover up his nakedness, let's say that we were beyond that level of modesty between us. He held his hand up to his forehead. "Thanks a lot Asuka!" He whined. "What did you do that for?"

I got down on my hands and knees and brought myself close to him, our faces mere centimetres apart.

"Whatever do you mean Shinji?" I asked innocently, putting on my biggest and most appealing eyes for him.

"Hahahaha...Ow!" He said, rubbing his forehead gently. "You know very well! You put the hot tap on in the kitchen so that the shower would go cold, didn't you?"

I tried to look hurt by his accusation, but the smile I felt was beginning to win through my innocent facade. "Mmm... Maybe..."

He reached up, pulled the towel off the rail and began to dry his hair. "Ow!" He said as he dried around the right side of his forehead. I pulled the towel out of his grip and pushed the wet hair out of the way with my hand. There was quite a red mark just below his hairline, a small pang of guilt did trouble me for a moment. I bent forward and kissed the mark gently.

"Ummm... Sorry Shinji."

He smiled at that. "That's okay Asuka."

We stared at each other for several more moments.

"Shinji..." I said, leaning my body forward so that I was now pressed up against him.

"Yeah?" He replied with a gulp.

"I'm bored!" I said, giving him a small kiss on the lips.

"Uh-huh."

"Whatchya gonna do about it?" I purred in what I considered to be my most seductive voice.

"Um... A couple of rounds of Euchre perhaps?"

"Baka!" I said, giving him a not so gentle cuff to the back of the head. "Think of something else!"

"Ummm..." He continued as I pressed myself even more firmly against him. I could feel the reaction that I had been waiting for.

"I think that at least part of you has an idea..." I said, kissing him. Even then he still blushed. He really was adorable sometimes.

"Ah... Maybe..." he said.

"You know, it might sound strange, but you made a really cute girl, does that make me weird?"

"Um... Maybe?"

"Maybe..." I repeated. "But I know that you love me for it!"

He smiled that smile at me. It was so adorable that it pushed me right over the edge.

I leaned back and pulled off my top and wriggled out of the cut-off shorts I was wearing, exposing my bare body to the humid bathroom air. Then I leaned forward again to kiss him deeply. He responded back in kind as our tongues intertwined together. I could feel his strong hand on my breast, teasing and pinching the nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Oh God, I really wanted to feel him inside me so bad at that moment.

"L-Let's go to the bedroom, now!" I breathed urgently.

"Okay." He answered as we both struggled to our feet on the slippery bathroom tiles.

Let's just say that I didn't get my dinner for quite some time after that!

* * *

><p>Misato came home again that night. Late, but still she came home.<p>

Blast! That meant that I had to sleep in my own bed, Alone! What a crock!

She had a shower while Shinji warmed up some left over curry for her to eat. I just sat on the couch cursing the luck that brought our guardian home to ruin my night of Shinji related fun and nursing a mug of hot cocoa that Shinji had made for me.

At least the stuff in the bathroom, and afterwards, had been fun. And by fun I mean awesome. But I had hoped for so much more. That was at least until Misato had turned up.

Hmph.. Killjoy

The aforementioned Killjoy finally came out of the bathroom dressed in her dressing gown and slippers and rubbing her hair with a towel, a bundle of clothes in her hand. My eyes widened as I recognised them as the clothes that Shinji and I had discarded during our earlier activities.

"I hate to sound like a nag here." She said. "But could you guys not just leave your dirty clothes lying on the bathroom floor? At least Put them in the hamper when you've finished with them!"

"Yes Misato!" Shinji said.

"Why should I?" I exclaimed, getting into character. "That's what we've got Shinji here for!"

"No, Asuka! It's not his job to pick up your dirty underwear for you!"

"Yeah, well who knows what the Hentai would do if he got his grimy mitts on my precious underwear anyway. He probably sells them to his perverted friends!"

"A-Asuka!" Shinji stammered, also getting into his character beautifully, "I d-do not sell..."

"Just stick a sock in it, both of you! This is my first night away from work in over a week. I just want to enjoy it in peace!"

"Sorry Misato." Shinji said.

I said nothing. But when Misato wasn't looking I did give Shinji a conspiratorial wink over my hot cocoa. He gave me a quick smile back.

Misato was too busy swigging beer and manhandling the penguin to even notice.

We all turned in for an early night. There wasn't much point staying up anyway.

* * *

><p>I slept like a sack of crap that night. My own bed sucked. It was so cold and empty all by myself. I had gotten too used to sharing the space with my Shinji to keep me warm. I just couldn't get off to sleep on my own.<p>

To add insult to injury, just as I was finally drifting off... Misato's fucking phone rang! Arrgh! I lay there waiting for her to pick it up. Nothing. That Woman could sleep through God-Damned doomsday!

I threw the covers back angrily and got out of bed. I went out to the kitchen where the offending cell-phone lay ringing on the bench top. I picked it up, walked to the door of Misato's room. Took aim and threw it at the lumpen shape of NERV's Director of Operations. I was quietly pleased at the "Oomph!" That I heard as the phone struck her sleeping form.

The phone disappeared beneath the quilt.

"Hello?" I heard her muffled voice say. "Yes... Yes Sir! We'll be there right away sir! Yes. Goodbye."

Misato's head appeared from beneath the bed covers and she looked at me blearily.

"Asuka?" She said.

"Yeah?"I answered. _Please don't say Angel Alarm, Please don't say Angel Alarm, Please don't say Angel Alarm!_

"There's an Angel Alarm."

_Shit! _"Good!" I lied. "Another chance to show how great I am."

"That my girl."

"I'll wake up sleeping Baka!"

"Thanks... We need to get going in the next 5 minutes, this sounds like a big one."

"You know what they say, the Bigger they are... something something..."

"That's the spirit." She said with a tired smile.

I left her to get dressed while I woke up Shinji.

I was more than a little annoyed. Those Angels had no sense of decency, getting us up out of bed like this.

That Angel was gonna pay for this.

I hoped.

* * *

><p>"No steak dinner is worth this!" I said loudly, my frustration rising at the waiting that I was having to endure.<p>

Through the open Com Window I saw Shinji smile at my outburst. He, like me, knew it was never about the steak to begin with. I wasn't even that big a fan of scorched, over-priced cow-parts anyway. Though I knew that, especially with many older Japanese like Misato, steak was considered something of a prestige item.

Yes, I know that the intention was generous. A way to show her appreciation for what we were doing. It was certainly a lot more than the big fat 'Nothing' that NERV usually offered as a reward for risking your skin in its service.

But still, sitting around waiting for an organic killing machine the size of a small Pacific Atoll to fall from the upper Stratosphere, land _somewhere_ within a fourteen kilometre radius and go off like the _Tsar Bomba_ wasn't exactly conducive to a calm and contemplative outlook on life. Especially when the Grand Plan required for you to Goddamn well _catch _it!

With all of that I was supposed to get excited about a freaking steak dinner?

_Whoop-de-fucking-do._

Misato's face popped up in a communications window. "Keep alert everyone! Once the target's trajectory is established the Magi will feed you the co-ordinates and ETA direct into your onboard computers."

"Hai, hai." I said as the com window flipped off.

I looked up at the clear sky above my Evangelion. The targeting reticule briefly wavered over a distant skein of birds and then on a plastic bag wafting around in eddies of rising warm air. Then it flickered off. Nothing, nicht, nada, nul, niente, zero, zilch, zip, bubkiss. No sign that Giant Explody Alien Death From Above was lurking up there in the azure firmament.

Bah... The waiting game sucks.

I flipped open a com channel. "Hey Shinji!"

"Huh?"

"I'm bored!"

"Bored?" Misato interrupted, her irate face appearing in a window in front of me. "How can you be bored Asuka? A Goddamned _Angel_ is about to drop on us all from suborbital space and you're _bored?_"

"Geez Misato! Get outta my face already! I wasn't even talking to you!"

"Suck it up Asuka, and _Focus!_ I don't need to remind you what's at stake here!" Her face disappeared from my HUD as quickly as it had come. Shinji's face, however, was still in front of me as his com channel was still open. I could see him wearing a particularly irritating smirk.

"Shut up Third!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"You don't have to. Just wipe that smirk off your face or I'll have Unit 02 do it for you!"

His eyes widened a little before he smiled a much more appealing smile at me and bowed his head. "As you wish..." And with that his channel was closed too. Once again I was alone and bored. The sky remained tauntingly empty and blue. I closed my eyes. I ran through the diagnostics checklist again and repeated the locations of armament buildings and Eva lift points over to myself. It was my foolproof way to regain my focus and composure. I could feel my heart rate slowing and my mind becoming clear of extraneous thought.

I opened my eyes again. _"Ikuhayo Asuka."_ I said to myself. It had been my mantra for longer than I could remember.

_Alright, Angel. I'm ready for you._

Despite my determination, the sky remained tauntingly empty of Angel.

Time dragged on as we waited. Now there were no birds, no sounds of man or nature, not even any debris floating on the light breeze. Just the soft hum of the LCL filters located at the rear of the entry plug and the blue sky above. My eyes were starting to get those weird floaty spots that you sometimes see when you're staring at nothingness for too long. They were really beginning to bug me. Everyone was on edge and the waiting around was beginning to wear everyone ragged. Even Misato's periodic exhortations to pay attention and be prepared to engage were beginning to sound forced.

Still time dragged on.

I flipped open the general com channel. "Still bored." I said.

Misato was less than impressed.

"Asuka! Keep the channels clear for... "

She got no further before the alarm sounded and the status bar on my HUD changed to red. I looked up. The targeting reticule was now fixed on one section of the sky. At its centre was a miniscule black dot, dragging a thin condensation trail behind it. It was growing larger and larger by the second.

"Angel inbound!" One of the bridge techs exclaimed. Probably the glasses one that was not so secretly nursing a semi for Misato. "Impact estimated in 89 seconds!"

"The MAGI have calculated impact zone with a probability of 96.2 percent! Co-ordinates Z Plural ZZ Alpha!" I think that was Lt Ibuki speaking this time. I'm not too sure. I've got a terrible memory for peons. "Uploading data to the Evangelions!"

Suddenly, on the HUD, a small hill on the northern side of the City was highlighted in green. That was it. That was where the Angel would impact. That was the point where I may die. I shook my head. That was where _I_ would defeat this Angel.

"Evas! Move out!" Misato yelled.

And it was _on._

Jettisoning the power cable with a thought I then willed Unit 02 forward. This was the first time outside of simulations that I had pushed the Evangelion this hard. The giant bio-mechanical beast quickly achieved speeds approaching the sub-sonic. I could feel the impact of each footfall transmitted up the Eva's enormous legs before pushing off again with tremendous force. Roads crumbled beneath my feet and tall metal towers whizzed by as I thundered towards the hill as fast as I was able. The Evangelions only had 5 minutes operative power, but that was currently the furthest thing from my mind. If we hadn't stopped the Angel by the time we ran out of power, it would be because we were already dead.

I was leaping lines of high voltage like they were hurdles on an athletics track as I approached the small hill that was my target. I could just make out in my peripheral vision the large plumes of dust thrown up by the other two Evangelions as they zeroed in on the same point that I was racing to.

I've always been left with an almost movie like sense of clarity in the memories that I have of all of the battles that I fought in during the Angel Wars. I can still see every detail like it was playing out before me right now. The enormous dust clouds converging on the hill and the Angel, unbelievably huge now as it neared the Earth, spreading itself out like an enormous mutant starfish, or something. Small eddies spiralled off the outstretched limbs as it plummeted into the warmer, denser air at the lower Troposphere.

We were supposed to catch _that? _Misato needed her fucking head read if she thought that was even possible!

And I had another news flash for her. We weren't going to make it. From my perspective the Angel now looked almost as if it were touching the hill, and by my estimation I was about 15 seconds away from ground zero. Even as I pushed my Unit 02 on the realisation struck me that we were probably going to die. There was no way I could get there in time to catch it!

The dust plume to my right suddenly grew larger and I could now make out the seemingly small purple figure of Unit 01 at its head becoming a virtual blur as Shinji found something extra from the Prototype.

Several seconds later I felt rather than heard the sonic boom as Unit 01 briefly broke the sound barrier before disappearing around the other side of the hill as I neared its base.

_Oh shit,_ I thought. Now the Angels arms seemed to almost stretch from horizon to horizon. It seemed that it was just about to impact as I finally reached the base. I braced for the end even as I began to climb.

Suddenly the sky grew black and the Angel appeared to hang in the air. _What the? _

Then I saw it. The Angel was being held up by a large orange hexagon. One of the others had beaten me to the impact point. I could feel the old ire rising in me_. I would not be shown up here!_ That was quickly swept away by the almost inhuman screaming coming from Shinji in Unit 01.

Shinji was up there alone, with the whole weight of the Angel on his Evangelion. I willed my machine up the hill to my lover's aid. Then the A-T field holding back the Angel became brighter and it appeared to push it back just a little.

_Fuck! _That meant Ayanami was there now!Despite this Shinji's agonised screaming continued on unabated.

"Pilot Soryu! Quickly!"

"Don't you fucking dare tell me what to do, _First_!" I snarled as I crested the hill.

Now I could see the reason for Shinji's cries. Unit 01 was directly beneath the Angel, arms raised to support the A-T Field that it has raised to fend off the Angel and prevent its impact with the Earth. How he had been able to support something as enormous as that alone was beyond me. But the true horror was that the Angel had managed to pierce his A-T Field with two viciously spiralled spikes that had entered the base of Unit 01's hands and then exited through the bottom of its elbows before boring into the Earth beneath it.

The agony that it inflicted must have been indescribable.

Unit 00 was there, adding its A-T Field to Unit 01's to take some of the weight off of Shinji. As I approached in Unit 02 I saw Unit 00 deploy its progressive knife and use it to tear a long slit in the field above it, exposing the bright red sphere of the Angel's core.

"Pilot Soryu!" The First called out again. That bossy bitch.

"I'm on it!" I yelled in reply.

I willed my own Progressive knife to deploy, and trying not to think of the pained cries of my Shinji I drove it up and into the slit. The core was hard as steel and I could feel the extra pressure the Angel exerted to attempt to block my strike and also close up the rent in its armour. I willed my own A-T field up and out to hold the slit open and I could sense the other two Evangelions putting everything they could into the effort to hold the Angel back and buy me the time I needed.

I drove the knife against the core with every fibre of my being. Sparks flew from the sphere as the knife's sonic energy pushed against it. I could hear someone screaming. "Die! Die! Die!" it took me a moment to realise that it was actually me.

Then the Angel began to let out a high pitched wailing that I almost felt more than I heard. My whole focus was on the knife attempting to pierce the crimson sphere. My own arms were burning with the exertion of sustaining the attack and I could hear Shinji's cries taking on a more desperate pitch. _This was taking too long!_

Finally, the surface of the core began to yield. Small cracks appeared on its previously flawless surface. These rapidly became larger cracks as the high pitched wailing reached a crescendo that felt like it was scraping against the inside of my skull.

Then, the sweetest feeling as the prog knife broke through the outer shell of the core and sunk deeply, almost to the hilt, into it. Everything seemed to stop for a second. For that small moment there was no noise, no movement, nothing but the core of the Angel as its light was extinguished and thick dark blood began to pour from the wound that I had made.

I knew what would happen next. I extended my A-T Field outward as the Angel's core collapsed and went into critical failure and the World turned white.

* * *

><p>"Asuka? Asuka answer me!"<p>

I shook my head to try to regain my senses as the dust and debris cleared. I guess that I must have been stunned by the force of the blast when the Angel went critical. I could taste blood in my mouth and I felt as if I had been kicked in the chest by a mule.

"Roger Misato! I'm okay." I sputtered.

"Thank God! Asuka, I can't contact Shinji! Our sensors show that Unit 01 is 560 metres south-west from your current position. Can you see him from where you are?"

I looked around me. All I could see was the gore spattered interior of the crater that the exploding Angel had left behind it. Unit 02, with me still in it, was sprawled on the bottom, the Progressive knife still clutched in its hand. I returned it to its place in the right pauldron and gave my Eva the once over. It was dusty and dirty, with some bloody Angel remnants daubed here and there, but otherwise unharmed. I had deployed my A-T Field just in time it seemed. I couldn't see any sign of the other two Units though.

"Negative, Misato."

According to the display, Unit 02 still had just under two minutes of active battery life left. There was no time to waste then. Forcing my Eva into action I willed Unit 02 to its feet and clambered out of the crater. Just past the edge I could see Unit 00. The Blue Evangelion was crouched in shutdown mode. It had sustained quite a bit more damage than my Unit 02 and its armour was scorched black in several places. The Entry Plug was partially ejected and I could see Ayanami already was outside the plug and climbing her way down to the ground. She waved at Unit 02 as I went past to show that she was okay. I paid her no mind. I had more important things to look for.

"_Shinji! Come on!" _I muttered to myself. _"Where the fuck are you?"_

The Earth around what was left of the hill was bare and scorched. Dark rivers of Angelic blood still ran down its sides and formed rank pools at its base. Dirt and debris, including uprooted trees and boulders, littered the area.

_Nothing... Nothing... Nothing... There!_

It was a splash of purple against the rubble. I could just make out Unit 01's right arm and horn in amongst where the debris was at its thickest. Just where several tree trunks and boulders were all clumped together next to one of the largest pools of Angel blood at the base of the hill.

"Shinji!"

I raced Unit 02 down to the bottom of the slope and frantically started pulling huge logs and boulders away from the upper half of the purple Evangelion. As I pulled away the last of the rubble Unit 01 began to slide down into the bloody pool even further.

"Oh no you don't!"

I leapt into the pool, the blood coming up to my Eva's waist, and scooped up Unit 01 underneath its arms. It hung limply in my grasp.

"Shinji! Come on! Answer me if you're in there! _Help me!_" I said, straining to lift the Bio-mechanoid onto the bank of the pool.

Still nothing. The giant robot remained lifeless in Unit 02's arms. I placed it gently on the bare ground. I could feel the panic starting to twist in my guts.

"Shinji!" I was yelling now. "Come on! Answer me! Don't you dare fucking die on me now Shinji! Don't you even think about it! _Come on!" _I was verging on hysterical. Unit 01's eyes remained dark, devoid of life.

I had to get him out of there. Out of that monster. I made Unit 02 roll the purple Unit over and deployed my progressive knife. The shouts and orders coming from Misato over the Com channel were just noise to me at that stage. I don't even remember being aware of them. The timer was counting down. 22 seconds of auxiliary power left. I braced Unit 02 against Unit 01's shoulder and dug the prog knife into the Entry Plug armour plate on its back.

"I'm sorry Shinji!" I said, tears streaming down my face. "But I have to get you out of there! You-you can't die in there! You can't die... because... because I-I love you, you idiot! Don't you understand? You can't die, _I won't let you die_, because I love you!" No answer came from the Eva as I used the knife to lever the protective plate open.

9 Seconds Power remaining. The interior lighting of my plug had turned red in warning. I ignored it.

Finally I ripped the plate off and tossed it into the lake of blood. The entry plug ejected about two thirds of the way out of the back of Unit 01, venting LCL as it did. I grabbed it with my Eva's hand and wrenched it free of the purple prototype placed it gently onto some clear ground just as the world went dark. Unit 02 had exhausted its battery power. There was a jolt as the Entry Plug was automatically ejected and the LCL rapidly drained from around me.

I hacked and retched as my lungs went through the painful process of expelling the fluid from them and replacing it with the cold harsh air. I waited impatiently for the ear popping _'psssht'_ as the Entry Plug depressurised.

I don't really remember opening my plug or even climbing down Unit 02 to get to ground level. I can remember the feel of the rough ground against the thin soles of the feet of my Plugsuit. I remember tripping in an exposed tree root as I ran to where Unit 01's plug lay. I didn't even realise at the time that I had ripped my plugsuit in the fall, or that I was bleeding from the right arm, hip and knee through those rents until much later.

I made it to the plug finally. I pulled out the flush fitting butterfly handles of the emergency hatch. They were scorching hot to the touch, causing the gloves of my plug suit to split and fall away, but I held on and twisted them with all of my strength.

'_Come on...Come on...' _They were refusing to budge. I could feel the skin on my hands beginning to blister in the heat. I braced both feet against the plug and heaved again. I kept straining even as I dimly aware of the whine of V-TOLs approaching the blast site.

With a screech of metal the handles began to move, and all of a sudden they spun around 180 degrees and the hatch popped out. I wrenched it open, ignoring the excess LCL that washed over my feet.

"Shinji!" I yelled as I climbed into the plug.

It took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the gloom inside Shinji's plug. There he was. I could make out the white of his plug suit still in the control seat. I clambered up the cramped space of the Entry Plug. I could hear his rasping breaths. _He was Alive! _

There was no room in there for anything else, so I sat straddling him in the control seat as I shook his shoulders trying to rouse him. He let out a few moans before coughing a few times. I small trickle of blood ran from his nose as he coughed but after a couple more sputters and gasps his eyes fluttered open.

"Asuka?"

"Shinji!" I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks as I collapsed into his arms. "Oh Shinji, I thought that I'd lost you!" I said, beginning to sob into his chest.

I felt his arms envelope me. I felt so happy at that moment. So safe.

"I told you Asuka." He said weakly between coughs. "I told you that I would never leave you."

I snuggled deeper into his embrace, I heard him give a short intake of breath as I moved against him.

"You're hurt?" I said with worry.

"I'll live." He said with a smile in his voice.

"I love you, Baka Shinji."

"You better."

I sat back up and looked him in the eye. "Don't get cute with me, Third Child." I said in mock ire.

"Uh...sorry."

"Hmmm..."

"What?" He said, a little confused.

"Well?"

"Uh... I love you too Asuka."

"That's more like it." I said snuggling back into him.

We stayed like that until the recovery teams arrived to retrieve us. In fact they had to wait for Misato to arrive and give us a direct order to let go of each other before they could manage to load us all into a Medivac VTOL to take us back to the NERV Infirmary.

Misato didn't say a word to us the whole trip back as the Paramedics bound up Shinji's arms and treated my cuts with antiseptic salves.

You know what. I didn't care. I was where I wanted to be. Where I _needed _to be.

_Where I was going to stay._

With Shinji.

**End Chapter 8**

A/N: Possibly the hardest chapter to write. I swear I probably took nearly as long writing this chapter as all of the rest combined. It's also probably the one I'm least happy with, narrative wise. Please let me know what you think!


	9. Alea Iacta Est

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Chapter 9:**

**Alea Iacta Est.**

_{"Now what I want is, Facts."_

"_No." Even I was surprised by the coldness of the reply._

_Dear God my arms hurt. Asuka was sitting next to me at the table, squeezing my bandaged hand tightly, which was both comforting and also quite painful.}_

* * *

><p>We had been released from the Infirmary after only a couple of hours. Well, that is to say <em>I<em> had been released after a couple of hours. Asuka, whose injuries amounted to a couple of scrapes and a bruised hip, had never been admitted in the first place. But she had refused to leave my side throughout the entirety of my stay there. That was fine by me, though I was a little over her grinning and telling me to 'suck it up' every time I winced or complained about how my arms hurt.

My souvenir from the battle with this particular Angel was two long angry scars running down each of my forearms and ending in an exit wound of sorts at each elbow. This was the first time that I had actually gained any permanent marks from a battle. Dr Akagi explained that my Synchronisation Level had spiked for a short period as I had strained to keep the Angel from touching the Earth.

The higher the Synchronisation the more connected you are to the Evangelion. The more connected you are to the Evangelion, the more you feel what it feels. This is all fine and/or dandy. Until a twelve storey tall alien sticks something sharp and pointy into your Eva. Then it gets considerably less fine and a _lot_ less dandy.

If that's what I got from a high Synch Ratio then I wasn't all that sure that I really wanted to get much higher than I was, thanks all the same.

Dr Akagi seemed surprisingly indifferent to the way Asuka was clinging to me as she bandaged up my arms. The redhead was fussing over me and watching the blonde Doctor's every move. Questioning her about the scars and how she was treating them and generally chattering away in a very un-Asuka like fashion.

"Keep these bandages on for at least the next week Shinji." Ritsuko said after she had finished wrapping up my forearms. "It's a waterproof dressing so it's fine to have them on in the shower."

"That's all well and good, _Doctor_." Asuka interrupted. "But what if there's another Angel attack? Will they stand up to being immersed in LCL? That stuff soaks into everything! My hair gets ruined every time! I have to use those industrial strength cleansers in the Nerv showers to get that crap out of it!"

"Asuka... " I tried to say, it was useless.

"And another thing!" She continued. "How soon will Shinji be able to... Ummm... you know... return to his...erm... usual activities? You know... Ummm... yeah... like cooking and cleaning and stuff? Is there any danger of... Ummm... over exertion causing him any harm?" Strangely she was beginning to blush as she said this.

Dr Akagi raised an eyebrow and said nothing for several moments. "Hmmmm..." She said, looking at the two of us in a most uncomfortable and appraising way. I could feel the heat burning in my cheeks. Doctor Ritsuko Akagi was one of _the_ most brilliant _and_ intelligent individuals on the entire planet. When she looked at you with the full force of her reason and intellect, you may as well be stark naked and waving a banner proclaiming your deepest secrets and insecurities for her shallow amusement.

"Hmmmm..." She repeated, before scribbling down some notes on a pad her clipboard. She looked back up at us. "No, there's no risk of opening the wounds, and those bandages will remain sealed beneath Shinji's Plug Suit, so the LCL will not be able to come into contact with them at all. Shinji, you should be fine to resume your, erm, normal level of activity as soon as you feel comfortable."

"Thanks!" Replied Asuka brightly. Beaming at me and giving my arm a painful squeeze. I was feeling less reassured though. Why did I have the feeling that Ritsuko knew everything that Asuka and I had been doing and trying to keep secret for all of these weeks now?

With a couple more ticks and notes on her clipboard I was discharged from Dr Akagi's care. We walked arm in arm out of the main doors on the Geofront side of the Infirmary. The spectacular vista of the lake and pyramid spread out before us. Asuka let go of my arm and wrapped herself around me, pressing her lips against my own in a gentle kiss. A gentle kiss that was shortly followed by a swift smack to the back of the head.

"Oww!" I said more in surprise than pain. "What was that for?"

She held me even more tightly than before, I could see some hints of excess moisture in her clear blue eyes. "That was for trying to be the Hero and scaring me like that!" She said. Then she pressed her lips to mine again in a deeper and more urgent kiss. "And that is for trying to be the Hero and making it out okay!" She said after she broke off.

"Uh.. Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome!"

"So... Asuka?"

"Hmmm?"

"So... you're _okay _with everyone knowing about... well about _us_ now?"

"Why Shinji? Are you embarrassed to be seen canoodling in public with a beautiful and exotic Mecha Pilot with her very own college degree? I didn't realise that your standards were so high!"

"N-No Asuka! You know that it's not that! It's just you said that we keep it quiet so that we wouldn't get separated or you know... in trouble or anything like that!"

"I know that I said that, Shinji. But you know what? _Fuck them! _I don't really give a rat's ass whether they cluck their tongues or waggle their fingers at us and tell us that we're naughty children! We're not God-Damned children anymore Shinji! In case you hadn't noticed, _we_ fight their battles for them _and_ save their asses time after time and what do we get in return? Seven parts of Fuck All and not much else! Wouldn't you agree?"

"Well... yeah, I guess." I said.

"You know it! And you know what else? I realised something today, when I was pulling your Eva out of that pile of blood and crap! I realised that if you died I would have nothing left to live for. Not Eva, not Misato, nothing! I realised that I _do_ love you, you great big dork! I love you and I don't care anymore who knows it!"

"I love you too Asuka."

"I know... And I've never felt that before. _Ever._.. Actually loving someone and _knowing_ that they love you back. Never! Never in my entire fucking life has anyone actually said that they loved me and I could know that it was because of who I am and not what I do." Tears were starting to roll down her cheeks now. "You do, don't you Shinji? You'd love me even if I was just an ordinary, albeit strikingly beautiful, girl. Wouldn't you?"

I kissed her forehead. "You could never be ordinary to me Asuka. But yes, I would love you even if you were just an ordinary, though strikingly beautiful and intelligent girl. Even though ordinary is something you could never be!"

She sniffled away some of the tears and smiled at me. "Why Shinji Ikari, where did you learn to become such a smooth-talker?"

I blushed a little."J-Just a natural I g-guess."

She blushed adorably as well. "Baka." She said softly. I knew that it was a sign of the highest trust and affection. She kissed me again. "Although maybe we shouldn't necessarily advertise the fact that we are actually sleeping together. I don't want the entire school, and NERV personnel roster for that matter, thinking that we're at it like a couple of Bonobos on Spring Break!"

"A couple of whos on what?"

She sighed. "Never mind. Let's go home already! I want to get back to the apartment before it gets dark."

"Okay."

But we didn't actually start going anywhere. We stood there in each other's arms just kissing and holding each other, making the most of each other touch and presence. Asuka's lips were so soft and sweet that I could have just stood there for the rest of the day doing nothing else and I wouldn't have cared one bit. I can't help but feeling that she also felt the same.

But my Strawberry Balsam heaven was sadly to be cut short for that day.

"Ahem."

Asuka stiffened in my arms. We both knew that voice. The one in some ways we had both been dreading the most. We disentangled from our embrace and stood to face its owner together.

"Uh... Hi Misato." I said sheepishly.

"Hey Misato." Asuka said with more confidence than I could manage.

Our guardian just let out a tired sigh. "I'm here to take you home." She said with little inflection.

"Th-that's okay Misato. We don't mind walking, do we Asuka?"

"Yep, in fact I think that I'd like to walk home with Shinji today. Thanks for your offer and all." Asuka said lightly.

"No." Again Misato's voice was flat. "I'm not going to let you walk home. You've been injured. I'm taking you both home, now. We need to talk." There was no denying her when she used that voice.

"Sure, Misato." I replied. I could feel Asuka's annoyance spike beside me. "We were just about to go home anyway."

"Fine." Misato said. "Let's go then." The Operations Director of NERV turned without further ado and walked towards the main parking garages of the Geo front. We fell into step behind her. Asuka shot me a rather pointed questioning look.

"We have to tell her sooner or later Asuka." I said in a hushed voice as we followed Misato. "We owe her the truth. After all the whole of NERV seems to know about us now, so she knows that we've been keeping secrets from her!"

"I guess so." Asuka replied. "But she doesn't have to be so shitty about it!"

"She'll be okay, once we explain it all to her." I said. I wished I could have believed my own words.

* * *

><p>Misato didn't say another word to either of us for the whole drive home. Asuka and I sat together in the back seat, holding hands and communicating more by looks that by speech.<p>

We reached the apartment just as the twilight gloom faded into sodium lit night. At least the elevators had been repaired, though it was an awkward ride up. The tension emanating from Misato felt like it was sucking all of the air out of the Lift-car.

Entering the apartment, my home and some-time prison, the sense of comfort I usually felt whenever I entered that place was somehow lacking this time around.

* * *

><p>We sat and waited for our guardian to change clothes and return. My stomach was twisted up into something resembling one of those big German pretzel things and my hands were clammy with sweat. I could see that Asuka was feeling the same, although trying to hide it. She gave me a small peck on the lips. Just at that time Misato came back into the kitchen. She was in her usual cut-offs and tank top and her hair was up in a pony-tail. I appreciated that. She was showing that she was handling this as our guardian and room-mate, not as commanding officer.<p>

However, her demeanour was still unchanged as she pulled a beer from the fridge, cracked it open and took a long drink from it before she sat down across from us at the table.

"After the Angel was destroyed... We re-established Communications with Commander Ikari." She said finally, in a flat emotionless tone. "I apologised to him for the damage to the Units 01 and 00 sustained during the battle because of my reckless plan."

"S-So was my Father angry with you for that?"

"No." She replied taking a large gulp of her Yebisu. "He said the destruction of the Angel out-weighed the damage to the Evangelions."

I opened my mouth to speak, but I was too puzzled by our guardian's mood to think of anything to actually say. I closed my mouth again.

"So, I was in a debriefing with the Commander and Sub-Commander for over three hours, before I came to pick you up. They had seen the footage and audio of the battle beforehand."

"Oh." Asuka said.

"Yes. 'Oh_'_ is right."

"So... They heard me when I said that I... " Asuka didn't get to finish her sentence.

"They heard you." Misato interrupted her. It felt like a stone had settled in my guts when I heard her say that.

"Are-Are they angry?" I asked.

"No, far from it." Misato replied, finishing her beer and getting up to get another from the fridge. "As a matter of fact, he knows all about it." She said as she sat back down heavily in the chair.

"What?" Both Asuka and I exclaimed in unison.

"That's right." She said with a hint of bitterness. "He has known for _weeks_, apparently. I can't say that I can say the same for myself."

"Misato, I can... " I tried to say.

"No, Shinji, you can't. Whatever it is, you can't explain this away!" She said, finally revealing the anger underneath her previously flat demeanour. "You can't explain how I found out from Commander Ikari that my two top pilots, and wards in my care, have been_ fucking_ each other for weeks now under my own roof! Can you Shinji!"

"Misato... " I said in shock.

"You know what the Commander, your Father, said Shinji?"

I shook my head.

"He mentioned Asuka's outburst during the battle, you know, where she said she... she said that she loved you. I started to explain that I thought it was just a heat of the moment thing, but he interrupted me. He-He said, and I quote. "I am well aware, Captain, that the Second and Third Child have been sleeping together for some time now." Can you imagine how that felt? Can you even_ begin_?"

I couldn't speak. Fear. Fear of my Father and what he could do to us paralysed me. And shame. The shame of having kept secrets from Misato, the first person who had ever taken me in and shown me true kindness. Asuka, however, had no such problem.

"So," She said. "What else did he say about us? I don't see Section 2 breaking the door down and dragging us away yet. What is he going to do with us?"

"The Commander? He apparently couldn't care less what you two do. His only comment, apart from reprimanding _me_ on not keeping up to date on what _my_ Pilots were doing, was that as long as your Piloting duties were unaffected, he didn't feel the need to bother himself with the personal lives of NERV employees."

_My Father said that?_ I was torn between relief and anger. Relief that my Father, the man who had seemed to go out of his way to fuck up my life thus far, wouldn't be interfering in my greatest happiness. Yet. And anger at his continued indifference to me, his only child.

But there was still an extremely angry Misato Katsuragi to deal with.

"So, you're not going to try to deny that you've been sleeping together behind my back?"

"Would there be a point?"Asuka asked.

"Hmmm... No."Misato said in response, before draining the second can of Yebisu. She got up again and fetched yet another can from the refrigerator.

"Now what I want is, facts." She said as she sat back down.

"No." Even I was surprised by the coldness of Asuka's reply.

"What do you mean, '_No'_?" Misato asked in annoyance.

"I mean _No_, you don't get to demand answers from us about this, Misato!" Asuka shot back, not to be cowed by the older woman's ire. "We may live under your roof, but you do not own us! You do not get to treat us like Children!"

"But you are... "

"No!" This time Asuka put more force into the word. "Don't you dare even say it! I don't give a fuck who you are or how you think we should behave! We risk our asses for NERV every God-Damned day! We get stuck in giant experimental killing machines to fight huge fucking alien monsters Hell-bent on destroying Humanity! We get blown up, probed, stabbed with energy beams, thrown in fucking lava and dragged through the sea as bait to be _impaled_ on enormous and unbelievably painful Angel teeth! Does our beloved Guardian and Commanding Officer raise even a token objection to that? Let me answer that one for you Misato! _No, you fucking well don't_! You don't because it suits you to have us do it! It makes your job easier! More importantly it makes you look good in front of the Commander!"

"Asuka..." Misato tried to say, but the redhead ploughed on.

"You think you have the right to make demands of us? To make us behave ourselves like good boys and girls when it suits you, but as soon as we express any kind of independence or don't fit into your plans like good little soldiers, you think that you can demand answers from us to assuage your need to play Mommy?"

Surprisingly Misato's reply was calm. "I'm not your Mother, I've never tried to be. But I have placed an enormous amount of trust in you two. And as soon as my back is turned you betray that trust..."

"So we get your trust to climb into the Evas and risk our lives against the Angels, then when it meets your needs we have to behave like good little dolls and do what we're told? What kind of trust is that exactly? Don't be such a hypocrite, Misato!"

An uncomfortable silence settled over the apartment after Asuka's stinging words. I could see the hurt and tension in our Guardian in the way her eyes stared at the beer can in front of her, her fingers gripping it so tightly that the aluminium was dented and buckled beneath them. I felt bad for having kept this from her, but what else could we have done? So little of our own lives was under our own control. If I could show her how we felt and what it was like from our own perspective, maybe she could understand. Maybe I could soften the hurt in her eyes.

"M-Misato..." I began.

She looked straight at me without speaking.

"Misato, A-Asuka and I... We didn't do any of this to hurt you. We... well neither of us have experienced anything like this before. You know about me. My life before this was... well... empty I guess. I lived with my teacher, who was an old man. He didn't really know how to relate to a young boy who didn't understand why his Mother went away and his Father seemed to despise him. Academically I wasn't that adept, at least as a young child. So he used to just prefer to keep me shut up in my room so that I didn't disturb his research. It was lonely. He didn't approve of me having friends my own age around, so I kept pretty much to myself. Then Father summoned me." I paused for a moment gathering my thoughts.

"Father summoned me. For the first time that I can remember I felt hope. Maybe Father would have me come back because he wanted me, he wanted his son to be part of his life. I was so happy when I got that message, even though all it said was "Come." I had, for the first time in my life, hope that someone actually might want me. Of course when I arrived here it turned out rather differently. As you will remember Misato."

Misato nodded. She was there when I had met my Father again for the first time in all those years. She, like me, heard his words: _"I summoned you because I have a use for you." _And _"If you're going to do it, get in. If not, then Leave!"_

"Yes, I remember." Misato said quietly.

"So I stayed, and you took me in. You gave me a proper home for the first time in my life. Even though I know you did it out of duty, and out of pity for me and my plight, I still appreciate what you did. You gave me the closest thing to a family that I had ever had. But I was still a part of your job. I was still alone."

"I-I know that Shinji."

"Then you must know what Asuka and I have and what it means to me." I put my arm around Asuka and she held my hand as it lay on her shoulder. "I knew that you would be upset by it, but this is too important to me for that to stop this. I love Asuka, and she loves me. Yes we... we are sleeping together, we have been for a while now." I swallowed, even though my mouth was as dry as a desert. "And I am the happiest right now than I have ever been at any time in my entire life. Don't you understand that, Misato?"

Asuka nodded in agreement to my words and Misato sat speechless for several minutes. Eventually our guardian, and the second most important person in my life, spoke.

"I... I understand what you're saying Shinji, and you too Asuka. I understand exactly." She took a deep breath. "That's what makes this so hard. Effective tomorrow morning I am going to arrange to have you move out of this apartment Asuka."

"What!"

"Let me finish. I will arrange for you to stay with Lt Ibuki for the time being, until more appropriate accommodation can be found..."

"But Misato!"

"I know that it seems unfair, but that is the best thing that I can do for all of us for now. It would be negligent for me as you guardian and Commanding Officer to allow you to continue on in your current manner for..."

"Misato." I interrupted. "Just shut up for a minute."

She stopped talking and looked at me in shock. I had never spoken to her like that before. Even Asuka looked at me like I had suddenly changed into some kind of strange creature, although her hand on mine was as tight as ever.

"A couple of things." I continued, my anger seeming to take control of my words. "One. If you decide to follow this course of action, then I will also leave this apartment with Asuka. We will find somewhere that we can stay, together. It doesn't really matter where I live, as long I have Asuka with me. Perhaps the initial accommodation that NERV offered me before you took me in would still be available? If my Father doesn't care that we're together then I'm sure NERV would find somewhere for its two top Pilots to live!"

"Shinji, I can't just let you..." Misato started, but I continued speaking.

"There is no _'Let' _Misato. It you continue to stand in the way of Asuka and I being together, then I shall resign as an Evangelion Pilot effective immediately!"

"Me too!" Asuka joined.

Misato looked darkly back at us. "Are you _threatening _me? You would endanger the whole World just for your own selfish needs?"

"Why not?" Asuka asked. "Everyone else here seems to do it, why not us?"

"But you have to understand why I can't let you do this!"

"No," I answered. "You have to understand why we _are_ going to do this, not matter what. This is not open for negotiation. You want us to pilot, then we stay together. It's as simple as that."

Misato buried her head in her hands and said nothing for several minutes. Asuka and I just sat and stared at her, still holding each other tightly. My heart was pounding in my chest, and my stomach was still twisted even more than it had been before. I wasn't proud of what I had said to Misato, but I didn't regret a single word of it.

Finally she lifted her head up from her hands. Her eyes were red and watery, she looked tired and defeated.

"Fine." She said. "Don't expect me to be happy about it, and _please_ don't ever let me actually catch you doing... anything! You can stay here. I give up." She sniffed.

"In the same room." Asuka said.

It looked like she was about to protest, but then she caved in. "Sure, whatever. It's only my apartment. Why should it matter to me?"

"I know that you're pissed off now, Misato." Asuka said in a kind tone. "But understand. Me and Shinji, we love each other. We _are_ happy together. That's what we've been trying to tell you! Try to be happy for us instead of fighting us. We want you to be happy for us too!"

"Yeah." I said. "You're like family to us too Misato! We didn't mean to hurt your feelings with this, it was just too difficult to know how to tell you without something like... well something like this happening. Please be happy for us, Misato. Please?"

"I-I am happy for you, really. I just... I can't help but feeling that I have failed in my duty as your guardian in allowing this to have happened."

"Then don't think about this like you're our guardian. Think about this like you're our friend. Can you do that for us?"

"I-I'll try, Shinji. It won't be easy, but I'll try."

"Thank you Misato."

She didn't answer, but just finished draining her Yebisu. I tightened my arm around Asuka who turned and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Alright you two." Misato said. "I said that I'd try, but don't push things too far just yet! I'm still struggling with the idea that the two of you are getting more sex than I am!"

Asuka and I both blushed hotly.

"Eeew.. did I actually just say that?" Misato asked with a sickly expression.

We were both still were too busy blushing to answer her.

"Ach.. I need a shower!" Misato said getting up from the table.

"I-I'll start dinner." I stammered.

"I'll help!" Offered Asuka.

Misato looked back at us from the kitchen doorway. "Wow. You're helping cook dinner Asuka? I think that's probably an even weirder concept than you sleeping with Shinji! My entire World is crumbling around me!" She said melodramatically.

"Go and have your shower already, Harpy!" Asuka replied.

"Sticks and stones..."

"Don't tempt me." Asuka replied as Misato disappeared around the doorway.

I started chopping up the vegetables as Asuka put on the pot to begin preparing the Dashi stock. Despite her alleged disdain for all Japanese cuisine, she could actually whip up a decent variety of Suimono and Nimono if the mood took her. Needless to say that the mood took her fairly infrequently at best.

Once the liquid in the pot was heating things became strangely quiet. Before I had time to analyse what this could mean as pair of arms encircled me from behind. I put the knife down and turned around, stealing a kiss from those sweet red lips as I did. Asuka returned in kind.

"You did well, Third." She said after disengaging from our lip-lock.

"No." I replied. "I let you do most of the talking, I just said what I felt perhaps she would understand and relate to best. I would never have been able to do it without you there."

"Still." She replied. "That doesn't diminish the act that you stood your ground and defended us. That took some guts Shinji. I'm impressed!"

"I meant every word." I said. "There's no way that I'm ever going to let them separate us! I would give up everything for you Asuka! Everything."

She smiled a precious smile at me. "Me too."

"Even Eva?" I asked.

Her smile faded and a small frown creased her brow. "Baka." She said softly.

"Asuka?"

She advanced towards me, still frowning. I quailed internally, but stood up to take whatever punishment she deemed appropriate for my stupidity. She raised both hands to either side of my face and hesitated a moment, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"A-Asuka?" I stammered.

"Baka." She whispered again. The word barely audible even from that close proximity.

Her hands clasped my face and I found myself pulled forward into a deep and fervent kiss. Still expecting some kind of retribution for my idiocy I resisted for a couple of seconds, before my brain caught up with proceedings and I relaxed into it. I enclosed her in my arms and held onto Asuka as tightly as I could, feeling the rise and fall of her breasts against my own chest as we continued our embrace.

Eventually the bubbling of the stock pot as it boiled over caught our attention and we broke off. Before letting me go to attend to it she looked deep into my eyes, her sapphire blue orbs shining intensely at me.

"Baka." She said once more. "Does that answer your question?"

I nodded back at her. "I'll take that as a yes." I said.

She smiled at me again, seeming to light up the whole room. "Good boy."

By the time Misato came back from her shower dinner was well on its way and life was, for the time being, a good thing to live.

* * *

><p>I slept poorly that night. Asuka was curled up against me, her arm almost pinning me to the mattress. Her breathing deep and even as she slumbered. I've always envied her ability to fall asleep and stay that way no matter what the situation. Me, I've always needed to toss and turn for at least an hour or more before sleep would ever take me.<p>

This night was even worse. I just stared at the God-Damned ceiling for what felt like hours. No slumber came to me. In fact the only thing that did come to me was a pressing need to go to the bathroom. I carefully squirmed my way out from under Asuka's arm and got out of bed. My beloved muttered unintelligibly in her sleep and rolled over onto her other side. I smiled to myself_. 'Success'_ I thought.

After washing and drying my hands I headed back towards our bedroom. That was odd, I thought. There was a pale light emanating from the direction of the lounge room. I crept carefully out into the living area of the apartment. I could see the tousled purple hair of Misato silhouetted against the screen of her NERV issued laptop as she sat on the couch. I looked over her shoulder and felt a pang of sympathy for our guardian as the apparently endless figures and damage estimates from that day's battle marched across the screen.

Poor Misato. Aside from the stress of dealing with Asuka and me, she also as Operations Director had the responsibility of overseeing and dealing with the fallout from the battle itself. Hence here she was, sitting in her pyjamas, working into the small hours of the morning on the problems and issues of a World that wanted to be protected from the Angels, but wasn't all that keen on having to deal with the clean up afterwards.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Misato?"

"Waaaaah!" Was her only answer as she almost levitated off the couch in surprise. Several hardcopies of battle damage reports slid off the couch and onto the floor. "Shinji! Don't do that!" She said. "You scared ten years growth outta me!"

"Sorry Misato." I said sheepishly as I helped to pick up the fallen papers. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. Its 2am, you should be in bed!"

"Yeah," She sighed. "But I need to get these reports onto the Sub-Commander's desk by the morning so that he can deal with the City Council, Parks and Wildlife, Citizens against Bio-Mechanical Armament, Tokyo-3 Chamber of Commerce and 27 other National, International and Municipal agencies as to what happened yesterday and why they should have to help foot the bill."

"But shouldn't they just be happy that we saved the World?" I asked.

"Well, sure. They want the World to be saved, but... you know... the NIMBY principle is common to almost all of Humanity."

"NIMBY?"

"Yeah... Not In My Back Yard."

"Oh."

"Yep." She said with another sigh.

She cleared some of the paperwork off the couch and patted the seat next to her invitingly. I sat next to her, a little nervous about what she would say next.

"So... Shinji."

"Yeah?" I answered.

"I... "She paused for a second, seemingly uncertain of how to proceed. "I... um... I want you to know that I'm not angry about what... what happened with you and Asuka."

I nodded.

"I'm actually happy that the two of you have found some kind of happiness in this shit-hole of a World. You know what? I kinda envy you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I do. And I respect that stand you took today, you've shown that you can be more of a man than many I could think of. I'm actually quite proud of you for it."

"Th-Thank you." I stammered. "I meant all of it."

"I know." She said. A quiet settled over the room.

"But," She continued after a while. "I want you to be careful."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Asuka's a complicated girl. She rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I know that you're strong enough to deal with that. But... The World is cruel. A lot of people might see what you two have and want to destroy it, or even pervert it for their own ends."

"You mean my Father?"

She took a deep breath. "Yes... and not only him. There is more going on around NERV at the moment than even I can guess at. I'm just saying, hang on to the good things that you have, they are what will sustain you even when the rest of the World is against you."

"I will, Misato."

"I know. And enjoy this time with Asuka. It will be the best of your life, but try to keep under the radar too. I don't want to see either of you get hurt."

"Hurt?"

She smiled warmly at me. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get quite so serious with you. I just want to say that I'm happy for you and Asuka. I'm sorry if I reacted so strongly earlier, it's just my protective instincts kicking in. With the lives that the two of you lead and the things that you have to deal with, you deserve some happiness! You both have my blessing!"

"Thank you Misato, that means a lot to me."

"Me too... But..."

"Yes?"

"Please don't ever let me catch either of you two... erm... you know... doing... um... "

I hoped that she couldn't see my blush in the dim light in the room.

"Just... be discreet I guess I'm trying to say!" She finished.

"Yes Misato."

"Alright, now get back to bed young Shinji!" She said.

"Yes Ma'am! And Misato."

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Her smile glowed even brighter than the computer screen. "Thank you. I love you too Shinji!" And I found myself enveloped in the arms of Misato Katsuragi, her heady scent of lavender and stale lager swamping my senses.

I can still, even now, close my eyes and see her framed in the pale glow of the laptop, head buried back in her figures and reports, hair awry as it cascaded over her pyjama clad shoulders.

I have always felt unworthy of the life that she gave me.

Asuka was awake when i returned to bed.

"Where were you?" She asked groggily.

"I had to go to the bathroom." I answered. "Misato was up, so I talked to her for a while."

"That explains the perfume." She said. "Well, what did she have to say? Was it more lectures on the evils of sex?"

"No. She's happy for us. I think that she's still a bit uncomfortable with us sleeping together, but she really wants us to be happy!"

"Well, Hip-Hip-Hoo-fucking-ray!" She said. "Thank God she sees sense at last!"

"She's a good person."

"I know." Asuka said, yawning. "Now then you! Less talking and more snuggling!"

"As you wish."

"Baka."

As usual, within seconds she was back to sleep, her arms wrapped around me and her body tight against my own. I took a little longer, of course. I got to thinking.

For the last few weeks I had been focussed almost completely on the blossoming relationship with Asuka. The beautiful, volatile and incredibly delicate girl that had caught hold of my heart in a vise-like grip.

Now that happiness had found me after being missing in action for most of my life, what did that mean for the future? My future, the World's future? Now facing that uncertain future together, what would we change? What would be unable to change? What would this mean for our other relationships with our friends, colleagues and superiors?

I dismissed these thoughts as pointless and unanswerable.

**End of Chapter 9**

A/N: This actually concludes Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity. My original plan was never to take the story right to the end of the Evangelion story, just to show Shinji and Asuka growing together and learning to love each other. But, I must admit that I do have quite a bit more plot in mind now that the die is cast and they're officially outed as a couple.

If people seem to like what I've done... Then I'll have a crack at writing the next arc! So let me know if you think its worth continuing!

So my plan would be to do a sequel as a new story. I kinda feel that the new story arc would be better served by having the space of its own story rather than just being tacked onto this one. So that is what is in the works.

It will be called. **Neon Genesis Evangelion: Who Breaks a Butterfly on the Wheel? **and will be a chapter by chapter release. I will be writing an epilogue to this story to join it more fully to the new one, so if you're interested in it, watch for that as the signal in the story alerts that the new story is up!

I hope that you've enjoyed this and please leave a review!

Thanks.

Donderkind.


	10. Epilogue-Nothing's gonna change my world

**Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

**Epilogue: **

**Nothing's gonna change my world…**

* * *

><p>So… there it is… You think that maybe we'd got our happy ending then?<p>

The way I've heard it told you'd be forgiven for thinking that I, a pale and awkwardly shy guy who grew up in loveless household on the outskirts of Odawara, arrived in Tokyo-03 and in short order: single-handedly defied my father, piloted the giant robot, won the heart of the fiery redheaded maiden and, as a side note, saved the world while I was at it.

Wow… that was simple… wasn't it?

Hmmm… Sure, it does make a pretty good story, and some parts of it are even true… Other parts… Yeah… Well I guess that it just goes to show you that you shouldn't believe everything that you read on the internet.

Asuka… Asuka made me happier and more terrified on a daily basis than you could possibly imagine.

Or maybe you can.

It felt as though with her a hollowness at the very centre of my being that I wasn't even aware of was finally gone. At the same time, I kept waiting in terror for her to come to her senses and realise what a terrible mistake she had made in being with me.

I only ever dared to express that fear to her once… let's just say that she felt that I was being foolish to think such a thing and we'll not mention the yelling and the gesticulating and the door slamming that followed _that_ little confession.

Ahem… That aside, without her beside me I can't even begin to imagine how things would have gone back then. Those last few months in Tokyo-03 really gave clusterfuck a bad name.

Really all I was initially worried about was how my friends would take the news of Asuka and me being in a relationship, and how Asuka would take to my friends… hopefully not with a blunt instrument. Like perhaps a flügelhorn …

Heh… Don't try to be funny Shinji…

Anyway… none of that was anywhere near as difficult as I had feared. Toji and Kensuke were… _concerned_ for my wellbeing, let's say. When Asuka and I turned up back at school together hand in hand and both blushing awkwardly the gasps and yells and even screams that we faced were hugely embarrassing, but we just rode it through and clasped our hands even tighter. Thank god for Hikari, she made sure that things were kept civil fairly quickly.

Life was good. Well as good as it can be with the ever-present threat of genocidal-explodey-death stomping down the valley every fortnight or so.

Ignorance is, or was, bliss. We thought back then that the Angels were the only horrors that we had to worry about.

How I wish that was the case.

The loss of ignorance and the true end of innocence came from a direction that none of us had ever anticipated.

**End of ****Neon Genesis Evangelion: Propinquity**

* * *

><p>So here, after many years, is the epilogue to Propinquity. Its tone is more reflective than the previous chapter as I feel that Shinji, in Propinquity, was concentrating on the growth of the relationship that he and Asuka were just embarking on. Now he's looking forward from that to the bigger picture and what that meant to himself, Asuka and those that they cared about.<p>

It also serves as a primer for the sequel...

* * *

><p><strong>To be continued in:<strong>

**A Butterfly on the Wheel**

Cheers

Donderkind


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